19*4-] SOUTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 155 



to the southeastern Asiatic region 14 although some of them are cul- 

 tivated in all tropical countries. The tribe Euartocarpccc of which 

 Artocarpus is the largest existing genus, have, however, five of their 

 genera confined to Central and South America, one confined to trop- 

 ical West Africa, two confined to the southeastern Asiatic region, one 

 to Borneo and one ranging from Japan to Australia. While the 

 geologic history of Artocarpus is only imperfectly known at least 

 15 different fossil species have been described. The oldest is a well- 

 marked form based on characteristic leaves and parts of the fruit 

 which show the typical surface features. It has been fully described 

 by Nathorst 15 and comes from the Atane beds (Cenomanian) of 

 West Greenland. Slightly younger is a less well-defined form re- 

 corded from the Emscherian of Westphalia, and the somewhat doubt- 

 ful genus Artocarpophyllum of Dawson from the Upper Cretaceous 

 of Vancouver Island. Another species is recorded from the Laramie 

 formation and the genus is widely distributed in the basal Eocene of 

 Xorth America. It continues in the Mississippi Gulf region until 

 the close of the Oligocene, the last recorded occurrence being in the 

 Alum Bluff sands at Alum Bluff on the Apalachicola River. On the 

 Pacific coast it is found in deposits in California and Oregon which 

 are referred to the Miocene. In the European area it occurs in the 

 Tongrian of France, the Tortonian of Baden, the Pontian of France 

 and Italy and the Pliocene of Italy. It is present in both the Plio- 

 cene and Pleistocene of the island of Java. 



Artocarpus is said to be represented by petrified wood in the 

 Oligocene of the island of Antigua and it was evidently a member of 

 the American flora from the Upper Cretaceous until late in the Ter- 

 tiary, although like the genera Cinnamomum, Nipa, Phoenix, etc., 

 it is not represented in post-Pleistocene American floras. An extinct 

 genus related to Artocarpus and named Artocarpoides by Saporta, 

 who described several species from the Paleocene of France, is repre- 

 sented by a single Wilcox species. 



14 It is found throughout Oceanica and was present in the Hawaiian and 

 Marquesas when they were first visited by Europeans. It was introduced 

 into the West Indies in 1793. 



16 Xathorst, Kgl. Svenska Vetens-Akad. Hand!., Bd. 24, No. 1, 1890, 10 

 pp., 1 pi. 



