31 



of Greenland (latitude 70°). A variety of Paleozoic remains 

 have been referred to the Palmae, ranging from Stigman'a trunks 

 to Cordaitean leaves and fruits ; the nature of the latter having 

 been first rightly conjectured by Brongniart in 1828 *. With 

 the marvellous increase, during the last twenty-five years, of our 

 knowledge of the vegetation of the Paleozoic, we can now posi- 

 tively affirm that palms are unknown from pre-Mesozoic forma- 

 tions. 



Stenzel, who has recently monographed t the fossil palm- 

 wood of the world, finds the oldest known wood to come from 

 the Turanian of France (i species) ; the succeeding formation, 

 the Senonian, has yielded him six species ; and, with the usher- 

 ing in of the Tertiary, the species become numerous. 



Undoubted remains of palm-leaves occur somewhat earlier, 

 and the Mid-Cretaceous, in the light of our present knowledge, 

 marks the introduction of this type. 



The Cenomanian of Europe has furnished undoubted palm- 

 leaves, and Stur X has described fruit from that formation in Bo- 

 hemia, and Fliche from the same horizon in France. The next 

 formation, the Senonian, shows species in a variety of genera 

 {Nipadites, Flabellaria, etc.). It is in the Tertiary, however, that 

 palms become greatly developed and widespread, and the numer- 

 ous species founded on stems, leaves, petioles, fruits, and even 

 flowers, are referable to a large number of genera {Giowuia, 

 Manicaria, PJiocnix, Nipa, Chamacrops, Orcodoxites, Saba/, 

 Iriartca, Lata)iites, etc.). In this country the earliest known 

 remains are those small fragments of striated leaves, of a rather 

 doubtful nature, which Lesquereux described § as Flabdlaria 

 minima from the Dakota group (Cenomanian). || 



The Montana group, of Senonian or possibly Danian age, has 

 furnished Knowlton^ with the undoubted remains of a large 



♦Prodrome Hist. Veg6t. Foss. 



f Beitr. Palaeont. u. Geol. Oesterr. Ungarn. I-182. //. 1-22. 1904. [Folic] 

 (I am indebted to Dr. F. H. Knowlton for an abstract of this work. ) 



jVerhandl. k. k. tleol. Reichsanslalt. Wien. 1S73. 



gCret. Flora, 56. pi. 30. f. 12. 1S74. 



II It is now definitely decided that Hollick's supposed palm, Serenopsis, from the 

 Raritan of Long Island, is a Xelumho. 



•"Bull. U. S. Geol. .Sur%-. 163 : 32. 1900. 



