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INTEODUCTION. 13 



Coming now to the Laurineoe, I have to remark somewhat more def- 

 initely on the Cretaceous species referred to this family. The relation of 

 some of them to the genera to which they have been referred is generally 

 acknowledged, and the presence of the Laurineoe in our Cretaceous Flora 

 receives a kind of historical authority from that of a Sassafras in a Creta- 

 ceous formation of Greenland/ of three species of Baphnophyllum in that 

 of Moletein, and of Laurus cretacea, Daphnogene primigenia, Daphnites 

 Gopperti, in that of Niedershoena. Of the species which have formerly 

 been described in the Flora of the Dakota Group, Laurxis Nehrascensis is 

 related to Dapknopliyllum ellipticum and L. crassinervium of Heer, while 

 dnnammium and Oreodaphne cretacea are comparable to Baphnogene prim- 

 igenia of Ettingshausen. Persea Sternbergii is also evidently of the same 

 family, and the two leaves, described here below under the name of 

 Laurus proteoBfolia, are, indeed, allied to species oi Laurus or of Persea by 

 their nervation, especially by the more acute angle of divergence of the 

 lower veins, though they show in the grooved middle nerve a character 

 •often remarked in species of Ficus, especially Ficus proiogcea, Heer, of the 

 Greenland Cretaceous Flora. Moreover, the fruit described ("Cret. Fl.," 

 p. 74) as Laurus macrocarpa satisfactorily completes the evidence afforded 

 by the leaves of the existence of species of Laurineos in the vegetable world 

 •of the Cretaceous epoch. We have, however, to eliminate from this family 

 LauropTiyllum reticulatum, which appears more properly referable to Ficus. 

 Its nervation, and especially its areolation, formed of square or irregularly 

 polygonal meshes by the interposition of tertiary veins between the second- 

 ary ones and parallel to them, and the rectangular subdivision of its 

 branches, are of the same character as in Ficus Geinitzi, Ett., Ficus protogcEa, 

 Heer, and as in many species of this genus now growing in Cuba, and 

 €ven Florida, Ficus suffocans, F. lentiginosa, F. pertusa, F. dimidiata, etc. 

 Numerous specimens recently found in Kansas represent the fossil species 

 in characters more precise than formerly, as seen in its more detailed 

 •description under the name of Ficus laurophyllmn. 



But if the reference of some of the above-mentioned leaves to the 

 LaurinecB is not contested, it is not the same in regard to those which, at 



' In " Arct. Fl ," vol. vi, 2d part, pp. 75-78, Heer describes as new species Laurus plutonia, L. anyuata, 

 X. Holla, L. Odini, with CinnaTnomum Sezannenae, Wat., from the Upper Strata of Atane. 



