238 TREE ANCESTORS 



Asia the existing Japanese "ash," Tilia cordata, a typical linden, 

 has been discovered in the Pliocene deposits of the Buchtorma Valley 

 in the Altai region of the central part of that continent and is also 

 probably the tree upon which the paleobotanist Nathorst bestowed 

 the name of Tilia distans for specimens found in the late Tertiary 

 at Mogi, Japan. Another linden fossil found at Mogi and not 

 given a distinctive specific name is ancestral to the existing Tilia 

 mandschurica now found on Nippon, and in Manchuria and the 

 lower Amur region. 



Although the Pleistocene records of the Hnden are not numerous 

 nevertheless lindens are found in deposits of this age in both North 

 America and Europe. Fruits of two different forms occur in 

 Interglacial beds in Germany and Tilia wood is recorded from the 

 lower Pleistocene of Holland. The leaves of the still existing bass- 

 wood, which is the most widely ranging of our American lindens have 

 been found in the Interglacial beds of the Don Valley near Toronto, 

 and another form, or perhaps the same species under another name 

 is found in the late Pleistocene terrace deposits of the Delaware 

 River in southern New Jersey. Undoubtedly other of the existing 

 species were already in existence and it would not be at all sur- 

 prising if the southern basswood were discovered in the similar 

 river terraces of our southern States. 



