TRELEASE: THE ANCIENT OAKS OF AMERICA 493 



those who had beHeved in them at first (5). At present, only the 

 following identities with European species stand, and these, appar- 

 ently, because their representations have not been reexamined : 

 Cretaceous — Q. hieracifolia (Kas.), Q- stramiriea (Col.); Eocene — 

 Q. Chamissonis (Alaska), Q. doljensis (Wyom.). Q- drymeja (Oreg.), 

 Q. eucalyptifolia (Col., N. Mex., Miss.), Q. Godeti (Mont.); Mio- 

 cene — Q. elaena (Col.), Q. Steenstrupi (Calif.). One European species, 

 Q. Gaudini, very indefinitely reported as American, seems to have no 

 ascertainable significance. 



Unfortunately until recent years nomenclature has been treated 

 independently in the several branches of natural history, even in 

 different groups of the same kingdom. Under this uncorrelated 

 procedure, fossil and existing species have been independently named, 

 with the result that a given name may refer sometimes to the former 

 and sometimes to the latter although no idea of identity or even rela- 

 tionship within the genus has been intended in their designation. 

 No procedure appears sensible except the restriction of a given bi- 

 nomial to a single species, and the acceptance of such a name as 

 valid from its earliest publication, whether for a fossil or extant 

 species. Application of this procedure causes a considerable number 

 of changes among the names of American fossil oaks, as well as among 

 species that are now living (6). 



On this continent, as in the Old World, the earliest appearance of 

 Qiiercus is in the Cretaceous, for which 48 nominal species are known 

 from scattered deposits in the Atlantic States of New York, New 

 Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina; in Kansas and 

 Nebraska in the Plains region; in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and 

 New Mexico in the Rocky Mountains; in Utah in the Great Basin; 

 and, quite isolated, in Vancouver in the northwest. None of these 

 species is known to have survived Cretaceous time, and none, bears 

 striking resemblance to any existing oak, though holly-like leaves were 

 found then as now. 



For the Eocene, 56 nominal species are reported from scattered 

 deposits in Canada and (perhaps questionably) Mississippi in the east; 

 from North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and New Mexico 

 in the interior; and from Oregon, Washington and Alaska in the 

 northwest. No species is known to have survived into the Miocene, 

 and none appears to be related to existing species, though holly-like 

 leaves are represented among these fossils. 



The nominal species for the Miocene number 42 and they have 

 been found in scattered deposits from Maryland, the District of 

 Columbia and Virginia in the east; and from Colorado, Montana, 

 Idaho, Oregon, California and Nevada in the west. One of these 



33 



