124 TREE ANCESTORS 



peculiar distribution of the existing species of Nothofagus, namely, 

 a dozen very similar species about equally distributed between 

 southern South America (Chile and Terra del Fuego), South 

 Australia and Tasmania, and New Zealand. 



This attractive hy])othesis is, I beheve, entirely erroneous, and 

 for the following reasons: It would entirely fail to account for 

 the distribution of Fagus, which is clearly of northern origin and 

 yet is associated with Nothofagus in the Tertiary of South America, 

 Graham Land and Australia. Moreover what appears to be true 

 species of Nothofagus occur in the Oligocene of Greece {Fagus 

 pygmaca Unger and Fagus chamaephegos Unger). If on the other 

 hand Nothofagus was of Holarctic origin it would reach these an- 

 tipodean lands along with Fagus. A number of elements of the 

 Dakota sandstone flora (Upper Cretaceous) are found in the later 

 Cretaceous of Argentina, showing that migration from North 

 America into southern South America was not only possible but 

 actually took place during the Upper Cretaceous and all lines of 

 evidence — bathymetric, tectonic, petrographic and paleontologic, 

 indicate that South America was in direct connection with Antarc- 

 tica. The Australian species would have reached Austraha, Fagus 

 and Nothofagus together or in successive migrations either from 

 southeastern Asia or from Antarctica over the then existing land 

 connections. 



New Zealand offers more difficulties but there is really a vast 

 amount of paleobotanical and botanical evidence (the latter dis- 

 cussed by Alfred Russell Wallace in his "Island Life") indicating 

 a common origin for the Australian and New Zealand floras. 

 There may have been a direct interchange of floral elements by 



Fig. 26. Some Fossil Leaves and Fruits op the Beech (Natural Size) 



1. Fagus cretacea Newberry from the Upper Cretaceous of Kansas. 



2. Fagus feroniae Unger from the Miocene of Bohemia. 



3. Fagus horrida Ludwig. Bur from the Miocene of Germany. 



4. Fagus lamhericnsis Berry from the Pliocene of Alabama. 



5. Fagus intermedia Ettingshausen. Nut from the Eocene of England. 

 6-8. Fagus Jerruginca Alton. Bur, nut and leaf from the Pleistocene of 



North Carolina. 



