104 



NATURE 



{Jnne 2, 1881 



existing genera appear, apparently as completely differen- 

 tiated from each other as at the present day. 



A few of the Cupressinese, as cypress and some of the 

 junipers, inhabit swamps or places liable to inundation, 

 while other species of the same genera seek out the 

 loftiest mountains and excel almost all other shrubs in 

 hardiness, the juniper and cypress being found in Central 

 Asia at altitudes respectively of 15,000 and 16,000 feet. 



Many of them seem able to adapt themselves to a great 

 range of climate. Fitaroya, a stately cedar 100 feet in 

 height on the western slope of the Patagonian mountains, 

 dwindles to a small bush a few inches high on the con- 

 fines of perpetual snow, and the Chilian Libocedtiis, loo 

 feet high on the Cordilleras, dwarfs to a small bush in 

 Magellan. Ctf all the genera, however, _/?^«zji^i';7/j is the 

 most hardy, extending itself as low scrub-bushes on most 

 mountain chains to far beyond the limits of trees, and 

 occupying to the south the barren rocks of Cape Horn 

 (_/. nv!/e?'a), and to the north penetrating Labrador, 

 Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay, and Greenland (/. Cana- 

 densis). 



Ahhough of relatively less bulk than the Sequoix 

 or the Pines, some species attain colossal dimensions, 

 as the Oregon red cedar, Tkiija gigantea. This tree, 

 said by Gordon to be from 50 to 150 feet, and by 

 Herschel 200 feet, high, seems actually to have reached an 

 altitude of 325 feet, and a diameter of 22 feet, for a 

 gigantic plank, exhibited by the State of Oregon at the 

 Philadelphia Exhibition, was stated to have been cut at 

 118 feet from the ground from a trunk of these dimen- 

 sions. Liboccdriis cicairrens exceeds 200 feet, and in the 

 Himalayas the gloomy Cupressus torrulusa has been met 

 with 150 feet in height and 16 feet in girth at five feet from 

 the ground. 



The woods of many of the species are valuable — those 

 of Frenela cotmnnaris, Callitris quadyivalvis, and some 

 species of juniper being esteemed by cabinet-makers for 

 furniture and veneering. The mottled butt wood of the 

 "Thuja"' of Pliny, and the "citrus "of Horace commanded 

 fabulous prices during the Roman Empire. Cicero is 

 said to have paid a million sesterces ' (9000/.) for a table 

 made from this wood, and of two tables belonging to 

 King Juba, and sold by aucjtion, one fetched 1,200,000 

 sesterces, although the largest recorded diameter is only 

 about \\ feet. The wood is still turned into tazza in 

 Paris, and examples of it are preserved in the Kew 

 Museum. Some of the most valuable gums, balsams, 

 and resins, and amber are obtained from the tribe. 



The first, and palaeontologically most important, genus 

 is Callitris. This is subdivided into four sections, by 

 many authors recognised as distinct genera— (i) Pachy- 

 Icpis or Widdringionia ; (2) Tefniclinis or Callitris 

 proper; (3) Hexaclinis or Frenela; and (4) Octoelinis. 

 The first section is doubtfully recorded as Widdriiig- 

 toniies, from the Lias of Switzerlind and Wiirtemberg 

 and from the Wealden and Cretaceous of North Germany, 

 and Kome in Greenland. IViddriugtoiiia is definitely 

 found at Aix and other Eocene localities of France by 

 Saporta, in the Miocene of Oeningen, at Bilin, and ques- 

 tionably so in the absence of fruits in the Greenland 

 Eocene. It is now confined to South Africa and Mada- 

 gascar. 



The second section, Callitris proper, is distinguished by 

 its cone formed of four truncated valves in pairs, and is 

 represented at present by a single species confined to 

 Northern .Africa. Its fruits however are not only met 

 with at Sheppey, but at Aix, St. Zacharie, and Armissan 

 in France, and at Hiiring in the Tyrol. 



Between this and the next section of Callitris should 

 be placed, if cupressineous at all, the extinct genus (?) 

 Solenostrotiis of Endlicher, founded on Bowerbank's 

 figures ol fruits with five valves each. 



The third section, Frenela, has a cone of six scales in 



* Hooker, "Tour in Marocco," p. 380. 



opposite pairs, and is now entirely confined to Australia 

 and New Caledonia, nearly two dozen species being more 

 or less known. One of the most distinctly Cupressineous 

 fruits yet met with fossil corresponds exactly with the 

 Port Jackson C. Endliclieri, but has eight scales, and 

 therefore falls into the Octoelinis section, also Australian, 

 but now limited to a single species. 



We have thus the most absolute proof that different 

 sections of Callitris flourished in these latitudes during 

 the Eocene period, and therefore that the Palaearctic, 

 Ethiopian, and Australian botanical regions overlapped 

 and intermingled to some extent at that time. They do 

 not seem, however, to have been present much to the 

 north of our own latitude. 



The genus Actinostrobus does not appear to have 

 been found fossil except by Ettingshausen at Sagor 

 (1859), and even these two specimens seem very indis- 

 tinct and much smaller than either existing species, and 

 are ignored by Schimper in his list of species. The 

 existing Patagonian Fitzroya has no known fossil 

 representative. 



The fourth genus, Libocedrus, is distinguished by its 

 flattened oblong cone of four to six leathery and very 

 unequal scales, and by its thick scale-like and peculiar 

 foliage. It occasionally forms very large trees, and in 

 distributed over all but the C'riental and Ethiopias 

 regions,^ though the actual species have a limited range. 

 The range of Libocedrus in the Tertiaries is singular. 

 It appears from below the London clay at Bromley, then 

 completely disappears in Europe until the Miocene, when 

 it reappears at Bilin, Schossnitz, Radaboj, Armissan, 

 Sinigaglia, from near Bonn, from Monod in Switzerland, 

 and the amber-beds of Prussia. Another species, said 

 to be allied to the Chilian tree, is found in the Eocene of 

 Greenland. As inost of the species of Libocedrus inhabit 

 considerable altitudes, even reaching the snow level, and all 

 of them are hardy in England, it is fair to infer that prior 

 to the London clay the climate (and this is borne out by 

 the rest of the flora) was much cooler than during sub- 

 sequent Eocene times. That Libocedrus was really 

 absent from temperate Europe during the latter part of 

 the Eocene period is beyond all doubt, and that we 

 actually experienced a change in climate such as had 

 been inferred from the faunas of the Thanet sands and 

 Woolwich and Reading beds is fully confirmed by the 

 flora. 



Thuya has small ovate or oblong cones of 6-10 valvate 

 unequal scales, and foliage somewhat similar to Libo- 

 cedrus, though less symmetric. There exist twelve to 

 twenty-one species, divided into five sections, and some 

 forming trees that are gigantic. The great majority 

 are Japanese, but two species inhabit the Nearctic regions. 

 The genus first appears in the Arctic Eocenes, descend- 

 ing into Europe during the Miocene, when it formed the 

 vast amber-producing forests along the Baltic. The 

 oldest beds to the south from which it is known, though 

 it is rare there, are those of Armissan in France, and 

 the late Miocenes of Marseilles and Tuscany. It is 

 unknown from England, and the Chama;cyparites of the 

 older Eocenes of Europe are now transferred to Sequoia. 

 The sixth genus, the stately Cupressus, is only known 

 fossil from two German Miocene locaUties. The existing 

 species are mostly found in mountainous regions. 



The seventh genus, Juniperus, is very extensive, and 

 is present in every geographical region except the Austra- 

 lian, being also one of the three British indigenous Gym- 

 nosperms. It has been recorded fossil from Aix, Haring, 

 and the amber-beds of Prussia, but the smallness of the 

 fragments and the absence of any traces of berries renders 

 its occurrence, especially in the former localities, some- 

 what doubtful. 



The range of the fossil Cupressine*, as ascertained 

 throughout the Tertiaries, is thus seen to be perfectly 



* As restricted by Wallace. 



