﻿GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY OF THE CANAL ZONE. 19 



material could have gotten together a much more representative col- 

 lection. 



The plants collected include ill-defined fragments of one fern, 

 two undertermined species of palm, represented by fragments of 

 foliage, and a third represented by petrified stems, and 16 dicotyle- 

 dons, of which two are represented by fruits and the balance by 

 leaves. 



Among the Dicotyledonae there are representatives of the orders 

 Urticales^ Ranales^ Rosales^ Geraniales, Sapindales, Thymeleales^ 

 Myrtales^ Ehenales^ and Rubmles. Orders conspicuous in the exist- 

 ing flora of the Isthmian region unrepresented among the fossils are 

 the Arales, Poales, Cyperales, and Orchidales among the Monocoty- 

 ledonae, and the Campamdahs and Personales among the Dicoty- 

 ledonae. 



The following 14 families are represented by fossils in Panama: 

 Moraceae, Anonaceae, Myristicaceae, Mimosaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, 

 Papilionaceae, Malpighiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Sapindaceae, Laura- 

 ceae, Myrtaceae, Melastomataceae, Ebenaceae, and Rubiaceae. Only 

 the last, with two species, is represented by more than a single species. 

 When so sparse and evenly distributed a representation of the 

 families is present in a fossil flora, it is an indication that after allow- 

 ing for some accidents of preservation, those families represented may 

 be regarded as the most abundantly represented in the Tertiary flora 

 of the region, and in this respect there is a very great similarity to the 

 existing flora of the Isthmian region. The present forests of Panama 

 are made up principally of species of Arecaceae, Moraceae, Mimo- 

 saceae, Papilionaceae, Sterculiaceae, Tiliaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Ana- 

 cardiaceae, Myrtaceae, Melastomataceae, and Rubiaceae. The only 

 ones of this list not found fossil are the Sterculiaceae, Tiliaceae, and 

 Anacardiaceae, and as these three families are all abundant in the 

 much more complete floras from the Tertiary of the soutlieastern 

 United States, it is safe to assume that they were also present in the 

 Tertiary flora of Panama. The mainly herbaceous families abundant 

 in the Recent flora, which are hardly to be expected in the fossil flora, 

 are the Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Orchidaceae, Araceae, and Compositae. 



The bowers of wild figs of the existing flora are represented by a 

 small-leafed species of Ficus from two localities in the Culebra 

 formation. The family Anonaceae, which has numerous species of 

 Anona and GuatteHa in the Recent flora of Central America, is rep- 

 resented by a fine large species of the latter genus which is not un- 

 common in the Gatun, Caimito, and Culebra formations. Guatterm 

 contains about 50 existing species of tropical shrubs and trees of 

 varying habitats and exclusively American, and has not been previ- 

 ously recognized with certainty in fossil floras. Anona is abundant 



