THE PAST HISTORY OF MONOCOTYLEDONS 173 



Tertiary beds by Heer's Arundo gopperti. This has a rhizome exactly 

 like that of the recent A. dotiax (PI. II. fig. 4). In the Cretaceous 

 Arundo grofilandica, Heer, from Greenland is too fragmentary. 

 Arundites is also doubtful. 



Phragmites ungeri, Stur., occurs in fresh-water beds in Hungary. 

 P. (X7iingensis, Heer (PI. II. fig. 2), is widely distributed over the 

 Tertiary beds of Europe, the Polar tract, and North America. The 

 Cretaceous P. cretaceus of Lesquereux is doubtful, as also are Pseudo- 

 p/iragmites provinciaiis, and P. arundinaceus from Tertiary beds of 

 South France. Phrag/iiites comiitiinis, L., is found in the Cromer 

 forest bed, East Anglia. 



X. Cyperacece. 



In the Tertiary beds of Qilningen some of the fossils have been 

 assigned to Cyperaceae, and though most are exceedingly obscure 

 there are some, however, in which the rhizomes, which are creeping, 

 resemble those of the recent Cyperus, e.g. Heer's Cyperus braunianus. 

 The genus now consists of some 700 species and is distributed all 

 over the warmer portions of the globe. 



In Preglacial and Interglacial beds Cladium mariscus and several 

 species of Carex occur, as well as Ekocharis and many species of 

 Scirpus, in addition to some Eriophora. 



Rhizocaulofi of the Parisian Eocene is regarded as belonging to the 

 Cyperaceae, but its affinities are uncertain. 



IV. Spadiciflor/e. 

 xi. Palmacece. 



The Spadiciflorae have many representatives in rocks of various 

 age. Fossil palm leaves are amongst the commonest fossils of the 

 later formations and aroids are doubtless represented. 



The palms and arums are graceful, lofty trees, with umbrageous 

 foliage, either palmate or fan-shaped. The inflorescence is a spadix 

 enclosed in a spathe. There is no perianth as in Liliiflorje. The 

 group is characterised as far as the fruit is concerned by its large 

 and hard seeds. Of living palms there are over 1000 species. 



Flabellaria is a convenient term for several early forms which 

 cannot be referred to or compared with the recent genera such as 

 Sabal, PhcenLx, Elais, etc. Amongst the species placed in this 

 genus are fan-shaped leaves of EL eocenica from the Cretaceous of 

 North America, also El. longirachis, Ung., and El. chatnceropifolia, 

 Gbpp., which are found in the Upper Cretaceous beds of S. France, 

 Austria, Silesia. 



In the Tertiary remains of palms increase up to the Miocene, and 

 then decrease, bemg still found in the South of Europe, and in the 

 Tufa of Lipari. 



In Oligocene and later times the palms reached a latitude of 

 54° N., Palmacites dcemonorops, Heer, occurring at Bovey Tracey. 



