L9I4-] SOUTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 163 



The geological history sketched in the preceding paragraphs is 

 necessarily fragmentary, nevertheless I think the data are sufficient 

 after excluding doubtful determinations to show that the family had 

 its origin in the northern hemisphere, making its first appearance in 

 the fossil record at the close of the Lower Cretaceous, becoming 

 practically cosmopolitan during the Upper Cretaceous at which time 

 it reached the Australian region from southeastern Asia. New Zea- 

 land must have already been segregated but not the land mass now 

 represented by New Caledonia. During the early half of the Ter- 

 tiary Africa and southern Europe were essentially a single floral 

 province while in the Western Hemisphere the Proteacese ranged 

 from the United States through South America and an unknown dis- 

 tance across Antarctica. Concomitant with the continent building 

 and the consequent climatic changes of the Miocene the area of dis- 

 tribution commenced that shrinking which culminated during the 

 Pleistocene, leaving the stranded remnants of the stock in their pres- 

 ent widely separated quarters of the southern hemisphere. Not all 

 the modern genera took part in this history since the local peculiari- 

 ties of poor soil and rigorous climate combined with relative freedom 

 from outside competition were the factors that stimulated a Tertiary 

 evolution of forms in Australia in exactly the same manner as the 

 peculiar Australian genera of Myrtaceae and Leguminosse were 

 evolved. 



The Wilcox species of Proteacese are six in number and are dis- 

 tributed in four genera, in addition to which a probable Banksia 

 fruit is retained in Carpolithus. These genera are Palccodendron, 

 Proteoidcs, Knightiophyllum and Banksia. The genus Polccodendrou, 

 not mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, was proposed by Saporta 

 for small entire coriaceous leaves from the Sannoisian of southern 

 France and is an entirely extinct type, sparingly represented in the 

 Wilcox by a single species. The genus Proteoides was established 

 by Heer for generalized proteaceous types which are well represented 

 in the Upper Cretaceous floras of the embayment area as well as 

 elsewhere. It is represented in the Wilcox by a single well-marked 

 species confined to the Middle and Upper beds. The genus Knighti- 

 ophyllum is proposed here for the first time for a well-marked long 

 petioled, aquiline-toothed, coriaceous form of common occurrence at 



