104 



LUWKK KOCENE FLORAS OF SOfTHEASTERN NORTH AMEIUCA. 



are 2 or o Oligocciic species in P'ranee and 

 Germany, and 2 or 8 Miocene species in France 

 and St yria. Felix lias d(>scril>ed petrified wood 

 from the Eocene of the Caucasus, wliich he 

 refers to Anacardioxylon, a type also repre- 

 sented in the Oligocene of Antigua in the 

 American Tropics (species compared with the 

 existing genus Spondias). 



Tlie floral genus Heterocalyx Saporta (Trilo- 

 bium Saporta, Elaphrium Unger, Getonia 

 Unger), wliich occm-s at a number of horizons 

 in the Ohgocene of France, Croatia, and Styria, 

 is represented by a species in the Wilcox. Sa- 

 porta compared it with the South American 

 genus Astronium, but Engler ' considers it 

 most like the Malayan genus Parisliia. 



The genus Metopiimi, not certainly recog- 

 nized heretofore, contains a well-marki>d species 

 in the Wilcox. Several Tertiary woods are 

 described by Unger as Rhoidium, and Saporta 

 has described a species of Schmus from the 

 French Oligocene (Gargas), which is WTongly 

 detennined according to Schenk.^ 



The genus Spondia-carpum is represented by 

 a species in the early Eocene of France, a 

 second in the Aquitanian of Rhenish Prussia, 

 and a third in the late Tertiary of the East 

 Indies (Banka). Recently Fritel has de- 

 scribed leaves from the Aquitanian of France 

 which he calls Semecarpites and which are 

 very close to the existing Semecarpus, which 

 contains about 40 species that range from 

 India to Australia. 



Clement Reid has based an extinct genus, 

 Teschia, on fruits of this family from the Plio- 

 cene of Holland. 



The family Ilicacefe (Aquifoliacese) is rela- 

 tively small, comprising only 5 genera and 

 about 180 existing species of shrubs or trees 

 that bear alternate simple, entire or toothed, 

 commonly coriaceous leaves. The flowers are 

 small, dioecious, and hypogynous. The fruit 

 is a drupe, and its thin, fleshy sarcocarp 

 incloses as many crustaceous nutlets as there 

 are carpels. The genus Ilex Linne, to which 

 all but seven of the existing species are 

 referred, is found in all tropical and temperate 

 regions of the world excej^t western North 

 America, Australia, Now Zindand, and New 

 Guinea. The remaining genera of the family 

 are Oncotheca BaUlon, which includes a single 



1 Engler, A., op. cit. =Schenk, A., I'alaeophytologie, p. 541, 1890. 



species in Nc^w Caledonia; Nemopantlies Rafi- 

 nesque, which contains a single si)ecies in tem- 

 perate North America; Sphenostemon Baillon, 

 which includes 2 si)ecies in New Caledonia; and 

 Byronia Endlicher, which contains 3 species, 

 one in Tahiti, one in tlu> Hawaiian Islands, and 

 one in Australia. This modern distribution is 

 a certain mdication that the family has an 

 extenihxl geologic history. 



Morc! than a hundred fossU species have been 

 referred to the genus Ilex. At least 13 species 

 are recorded from the Upper Cretaceous. ^VU 

 but one species from the Turonian of Bohemia 

 come from the Western Hemisphere, and in- 

 clude 2 in the Raritaii formation, 3 in the 

 Magothy formation, 7 in the Dakota sandstone, 

 1 in the Atane, and 2 in the Patoot beds of 

 western Greenland. 



There are about 14 Eocene species, including 

 4 in the Wilcox of the southeastern United 

 States, 1 in the Ypresian of England, 1 in the 

 Fort Union, and 4 in the Green River formation 

 of the western United States, 5 in Greenland, 

 and 1 in Alaska. There are more than a score 

 of Oligocene species, including one from Cliile, 

 that may even be of Eocene age. The lower 

 Oligocene, or Sannoisian, contains 11 species in 

 France, Tyrol, Saxony, and Prussia, and also 

 includes 3 species of flowers described by Cas- 

 pary from the Baltic amber. The middle 

 Oligocene, or Tongrian, includes 6 speci(^s in 

 France, Italy, Germany, and vStyria, and there 

 are 7 species in the upper Oligocene (Chattian) 

 of France, Bohemia, and Greece. More than 

 50 species have been described from the Mio- 

 cene of Europe and Asia, and of New Jersey, 

 Colorado, and California in this comitry. The 

 most prolific Miocene area is that of France. 

 About 10 species are known from the Pliocene 

 of Spam, France, Italy, Prussia, and Asia 

 Minor. One extinct and 4 still-existing spe- 

 cies are found in the Pleistocene of Vu'ginia, 

 North Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, and the 

 island of Madeira. In addition to the fossil 

 forms refernul to Ilex, 2 Miocene species from 

 Italy and Styria are refeiTed to the genus 

 Nemopanthes, and 4 forms from the late Oligo- 

 cene or the Miocene of Prussia, Styria, Croatia, 

 Bohemia, and Greece are ri^ferred to the genus 

 Prinos Linne, which is usually considered a 

 section of ll(>x. The 4 species from the Wilcox 

 that are referred to Ilex are represented in the 



