192 BERRY— LOWER EOCENE FLORA OF [April 25, 



eocenicum Berry may be successfully compared with a number of 

 the six hundred existing species of Croton which is so abundantly 

 represented in tropical America. Comparisons are especially close 

 with Croton eluteria (Linne) Bennett which is found in the low cop- 

 pice of the beach ridges throughout the Bahama islands. 



The genus Euphorbiophyllum was proposed by Ettingshausen in 

 1853 for several species from the Sannoisian of the Tyrol. Al- 

 together over a dozen species have been described by Ettingshausen, 

 Saporta and Engelhardt. These have been compared with the ex- 

 isting, mostly tropical American, species of Styloccras, Sapium, 57/7- 

 lingia, Adenopeltis, Exoecaria, Colliquaja, etc. The oldest comes 

 from the Cenomanian of Portugal and a second Upper Cretaceous 

 species occurs in the Turonian of southern France. In the Eocene there 

 is a species in West Greenland, a second on the Island of Sheppey 

 ( Ypresian) and a third in the Paris basin (Lutetian). Five Oligo- 

 cene species have been described from the Sannoisian of the Tyrol, 

 and a sixth from the Chattian of northern Bohemia. There are two 

 Miocene species in Switzerland and two in Styria : a Pliocene species 

 is described by Krasser from Brazil. A single small-leafed species 

 of Euphorbiophyllum is of rare occurrence in the middle Wilcox. 



The genus Drypetes Vahl. has about a dozen existing species con- 

 fined to tropical and subtropical America. Three extend southward 

 to northern Brazil and two range northward to the Florida keys. 

 There are two well-marked species in the Wilcox flora — one an 

 Eocene prototype of the existing Drypetes keyensis Urban, and the 

 other of the existing Drypetes lateriflora (Swartz) Urban, both small 

 trees of the coastal flora of southern peninsular Florida, the Bahamas. 

 West Indies and Antilles. The genus, which has not previously been 

 recorded in the fossil state, was probably of American origin and 

 there is no evidence that it ever spread to the eastern hemisphere. 



The order Sapindales, sometimes called the Celastrales, includes 

 some twenty families, together containing about 3,200 species, the 

 largest families in the order of their size being the Sapindacea; which 

 has more than twice as many species as any of the others ; the Celas- 

 traceae, Anacardiacea?, Balsaminacea?, and Ilicacese. As in the pre- 

 ceding order, the Sapindales start with isocarpic forms and pass to 



