I9I4-] SOUTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 219 



they have their chief center of differentiation in the elevated region 

 of Burma, Siam, Cochin-China and Malaysia, although they are cul- 

 tivated in all tropical countries and outside the tropics in Europe, 

 Africa and North America. Their fruits are eaten by birds which 

 seed them freely so that they commonly escape from cultivation. 

 Thus Cinnamomum Caiuplwra (Linne) Nees and Eberm. is natu- 

 ralized throughout peninsular Florida, and the commercial Ciiuia- 

 momum zeylanicum Breyn., is readily naturalized in the same manner 

 from the Oriental camphor plantations. 



While the data for constructing the geologic history of Ciiuia- 

 momum are far from complete there are more known fossil than 

 recent species and these show, as in the case with so many plant 

 groups, surprising extensions of range during the Upper Cretaceous 

 and Tertiary. The original home of the genus is unknown for it 

 appears in the early part of the Upper Cretaceous at about the same 

 time in New Zealand, Australia, central Europe, Greenland, North 

 and South America. The European and North American records 

 appear to be slightly older than the balance and would indicate that 

 the Asiatic region may have been the original home of the genus 

 which spread northeastward across the Behring region to America 

 and northwestward into the European region, the latter largely an 

 archipelago at that time. 



The Eocene records include all of the continents except Antarctica 

 and South America. The Oligocene records are chiefly European 

 and African, although the genus is still represented in the Florida 

 Oligocene. During the Miocene Cinnamomum was abundant in 

 Europe and present in Asia but appears to have become extinct in 

 North America, at least there are no conclusive North American 

 records. A number of fruits from the Brandon (Vermont) lignites 

 have been referred to Cinnamomum but these lignites are in my opin- 

 ion pre-Miocene in age. The Pliocene records are entirely Euro- 

 pean and East Indian. The genus appears to have lingered as a com- 

 mon type in Mediterranean Europe until the changing climates that 

 ushered in the Pleistocene glaciation caused its extinction, any con- 

 nected distribution with its present Oriental home across southwestern 

 Asia having already been interrupted by the orogenic movements and 

 the development of arid conditions in southwest Asia. 



