CdAIl'll.SITlOX ()!■■ TllK I'l.OlIA. 



89 



nolia found witliiii ihc I'liitod States, Mar/nolia 

 (/laucii Liiiiu'' ]'ani;('s iiorthwanl to Massacliu- 

 setts anil .]/(n/ii<ili<i acuniittata Linno to N(>\v 

 York and Ontai'io. About 60 fossil spories 

 liavc Ix'cii rcfcrriMl to Maiiiiolia. Tlieso species 

 are larjicly baseil on lea\'es, altiioui;li charaeler- 

 istic fruits, and at least two speciniiMis of parts 

 of flowi'i's, lia\'e been found at dilfei'ent lioi-i- 

 zons. Maiiiiolias are \'ery abundant in iioth 

 individuals and speeies in \\w middle ('fetac(>ous 

 (Cenonnuiian-Turouian), espeeially in Xortb 

 America, where tliev are found alonji' tlu> Cre- 

 taceous Atlantic coast from (ireeniand south- 

 ward to Texas and are e([ually abundant about 

 the borders of the advancing interior sea rejire- 

 sented by tiie deposits known as thi^ Dakota 

 sandstone. They are much less coniinon in 

 Europe and the genus is either of American or 

 Ai'ctic origin.' 



The Eocene records include 4 species of Mag- 

 nolia from the Arctic region and !•'! additional 

 forms, most of them American l)ut a few 

 European. The Oligocene series, which in 

 America carries no plant beds, contains in its 

 upper beds in Europe several species of Mag- 

 nolia. About 8 Miocene species are recorded, 

 the majority of which are American. The 

 Pliocene, also largely unrepresented by plant 

 beds m Aiuerica, contains 5 or 6 species in 

 Europe and 1 is found in the early Pleistocene 

 of that region. Magnolia seems to have been 

 abundant along the shores of the extended 

 Mediterranean Sea of the Pliocene and to liave 

 subsequeutl}' been entirely exterminated in that 

 region by the glaciation of the Pleistocene, but 

 it survived in both North America and Asia by 

 reason of the prevalent northward trend of the 

 mountain ranges. Some of the other genera of 

 the Magnoliacea3 are represented by scattered 

 fossil species, but the record is too incomplete 

 to permit generalizationrs. A survey of all the 

 facts leads me to consider America as proVjably 

 the original home of Magnolia. Despite tiu^ 

 massing of the existing forms in the easter-n 

 I'nited Stat(>s and tlieir extension to the 

 Arctic region in the Eocene, they probably 

 origmated in a warm temperate; oi- subtropical 

 latitude, spread noilhward across the Arctic 

 region to Eurasia, and were cosmopolitan later 

 in the Tertiary. They became restrictetl to 



iSaporta, CI. de, Flore Tossilc ilii rortucal, p. 104, pi. .Xi, fig. 3, 1S91 

 Jlf'?j;no^iat/t^^a(/o/Saport:i,rf{-urilR<l fronitlie Albianoll'ortiigal.isalmosl 

 certain]}* not a Magnolia. 



the southeastern parts of Asia and Xorth 

 America by the aridity that accompanied up- 

 lift, so well illustrated in the Eocene aiul later 

 history of the Rocky Mountain and Great 

 Plains pr()\inces, and \v(>re linally exterminated 

 in Europe by the Pleistocene glaciation. 



Lesquereu.x referreil two forms of the Wilco.x 

 of northern Mississippi to Magnolia, but both 

 prove to lie species of Termiiialia. as Lcs- 

 quereu.K had surmised in his prclimintiry 

 studies. The genus Magnolia is, however, rep- 

 resented in the Wilco.x by two large-leafed 

 s|)ecies, both of which are common to the basal 

 Eocene of the Iviicky Mountain province. 

 Neither shows any (-lose afniiity with the ante- 

 cetlent Upper Cretaceous forms, which are so 

 common in the emhayment area of .Alabama 

 anil northeastw.-ird along the Atlantic Coastal 

 Plain. 



The family Anonaccaj contains about 7(K) 

 existing species, which are distributed among 

 about 48 genera, onlj- two of which live in 

 North America. The family is practically con- 

 fined to the Tropics, a single Australian species, 

 and the North American genus Asimina, which 

 contains 6 or 7 species, being the only conspicu- 

 ously extratropical forms. The area of maxi- 

 mum representation is southeastern Asia and 

 the adjoining region of Malaysia, for though 

 only 16 genera are confined to this region they 

 contain more than 350 species, and 6 additional 

 genera (Miliusa, Uvaria, Polyalthia, Oxymitra, 

 Melodorum, and Poporvia), which contain more 

 than 2.J0 species, are represented by most of 

 their species in this area. The family ranks 

 fifth in number of sjiecies in the flora of the 

 Msilay Peninsula and Borneo. Only a single 

 genus is confined to Australia, and most of the 

 Australian species arc regarded as migrants 

 from the Malaj-siau area. Tropical Africa 

 contains more than 100 species and 6 peculiar 

 genera and America about 200 species and 10 

 ]K'culiar geuera. These forms are all confineil 

 to tlu; Tropics, except a species of Anona, 

 which reaches the coast of peninsular Florida, 

 and the genus Asimina, which inrludes 6 or 7 

 species of shrubs and small trees of the South 

 Atlantic aiul Gulf States. One; of these, Asi- 

 imna triloba Dunal, is hardy as far north as 

 New York, the farthest distance from the 

 E([uator at which any existing member of the 

 family is found. The fossil record of the 

 Aiionaceaj is very incomplete. Only the genera 



