I9I4-] SOUTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 215 



the South American strand, Asteropeia Dub. is confined to Mada- 

 gascar, Thea Linne with sixteen species is confined to southern and 

 eastern Asia, Mountnorrisia Szysz. with two species is a native of 

 the East Indies, the three monotypic genera Visnea Linne, Treman- 

 thera Muller and Pclliciera Tr. and Planch, are confined respectively 

 to the Canary Islands, New Guinea and Central America. The 

 remaining nine genera, all relatively small, are all found in more than 

 one region. Thus ArcJiytcca Martius has two species in northern 

 South America and a third in the East Indies; Gordonia Ell. has 

 two Xorth American species and fourteen scattered from India to 

 Malaysia ; Hccmocharis Salisb. has nine American and five Asian 

 species ; Stewartia Linne with five species is found in North America 

 and Japan ; Taonabo Aublet has 20 species in South America and 

 eight in Asia; Adinandra Jack, has 19 African species and one in 

 Asia ; Eurya Thunb. with 36 species and many varieties is confined 

 to tropical America and the East Indies. 



This remarkable existing distribution and the pairing of America 

 and Asia as well as the fact that it requires five subfamilies for the 

 reception of only sixteen genera are sure indications that the family 

 has an extended geologic history and that many of the genera were 

 once cosmopolitan. Unfortunately most of this history is unknown. 



The genus Stewartia is represented in the Baltic amber by a fine 

 flower {Stewartia kowalowskii Caspary) and by leaf remains from 

 the Plio-Pleistocene of Japan (Mogi). Gordonia has a species in 

 the Pleistocene of Java. The genus Eurya Thunberg, now American 

 and East Indian, has a species in the Oligocene of France [Freziera 

 Swartz). Fossil wood described by Felix and named Ternstrcemia- 

 cinium occurs in the Eocene of the Caucasus. Visnea Linne, now 

 confined to the Canaries, has a typical fruit in the Aquitanian of 

 Rhenish Prussia. The genus Ternstraemia Nuttall (antedated by 

 Taonabo Aublet) has several fossil species, the oldest {Ternstrce- 

 miphyllum) coming from the Perucer beds (Cenomanian) of Bo- 

 hemia. It has two species in the Ypresian of the Isle of Wight, one 

 in the Miocene of Bohemia and another in the Miocene of Croatia. 

 I have described four well-marked species of Ternstrccmitcs from 

 the Wilcox group and similar forms are present in the overlying 

 Claiborne group (Lutetian). Finally the very abundant species in 



