252 TREE .VNCESTORS 



in the South. In 1922 I noticed it in blossom in Mar^-land in 

 February and in 1923 it was out in January. We have 2 species 

 in eastern North America — a more northern and a more southern 

 one, their combined range being almost identical with that of the 

 sassafras, and overlapping one another in the Carolinas. Techni- 

 cally they are referred to the genus Benzoin named because the 

 fragrance of the spice-bush suggests that of benzoin gum. Both 

 are species that frequent moist places in low w^oods or along 

 streams. In some localities they go by the name of fever-bush or 

 ^vild all-spice, the latter an appropriate name for the aromatic spicy 

 odor of the blossoms, bark or crushed leaves. Later in the year when 

 the ovate leaves have unfurled and before the small red plum-like 

 fruits have ripened some search is required to recognize the spice- 

 bush even in its favorite haunts. 



In addition to our 2 eastern American forms which never reach 

 proportions larger than bushes, there are 4 or 5 species of south- 

 eastern Asia which are trees and have trilobate, sassafras-like 

 leaves, so that the spice-bush, like so many other of the t>pcs we 

 have been considering, illustrates a past general distribution and 

 a post-Pleistocene restriction to the southeastern parts of Asia and 

 North America, paralleling in its history that of the sassafras, 

 but much less fully known in the case of the former. 



Eight different fossil species have been described and all of these 

 are more like the existing Asiatic than they are like the existing 

 American forms. The oldest known are 2 varieties found in 

 the Upper Cretaceous of Kansas and Texas, contemporaneous w'ith 

 several of the sassafras forms of that time. There is an early 

 Eocene form in France and a late Eocene form in western Green- 

 land. Three Oligocene species are recorded from P>ance, Italy 

 and Gemiany. 



In succeeding ^Miocene times, especially in the later days of the 

 Miocene, 4 different species of Benzoin ha\'e been discovered. 

 These are found in Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Baden, 

 Prussia, Silesia and Croatia. Three of these lived on in Europe and 

 left their fossil remains in the Pliocene of Spain and Italy. The 

 Pleistocene glaciation, however, put an end to their long contin- 



