LATER CRETACEOUS AND KAINOZOIC. 



201 



whole, the finest in our forests. Its cylindrical trunk, 

 sometimes ten feet in diameter, carries it beyond all its 

 associates in size, while the beauty of its glossy, lyre- 

 shaped leaves and tulip- 

 like flowers is only sur- 

 passed by the flowers and 

 foliage of its first cous- 

 in, Magnolia grandiflora. 

 That a plant so splendid 



FIG. 74. Liriodendron Meekii, FIG. 75. Liriodendron primcevum, 

 Heer. (After Lesquereux.) Newberry. (After Newberry.) 



should stand quite alone in the vegetation of the present 

 day excited the wonder of the earlier botanists, but the 

 sassafras, the sweet-gum, and the great Sequoias of the far 

 West afford similar examples of isolation, and the latter 

 are still more striking illustrations of solitary grandeur." 

 (Figs. 74 and 75.) 



" Three species of Liriodendron are indicated by leaves 

 found in the Amboy clays Middle Cretaceous of New 

 Jersey, and others have been obtained from the Dakota 

 group in the West, and from the Upper Cretaceous strata 

 of Greenland. Though differing considerably among 

 themselves in size and form, all these have the deep sinus 

 of the upper extremity so characteristic of the genus, 

 and the nervation is also essentially the same. Hence, 

 we must conclude that the genus Liriodendron, now rep- 



