204 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [SEPTEMBER 
the Ficus by various tropical American figs, the Malapoenna by 
M. geniculata (Walt.) Coulter, the Momisia by M. aculeata (Sw.) 
KL., the Pisonia by P. macranocarpa Donnell Smith, the Rhizophora 
by R. Mangle Linn., the Sapindus by S. saponaria Linn., the 
Terminalia by T. phaeocarpa Eichler, and the Thrinax by various 
West Indian species of that genus. 
When we consider the habitat of these modern forms and that 
of their allies, we find that they inhabit the tidal nipa swamps of 
the orient, the mangrove swamps of the orient and the occident, 
the beach jungle of the strand, or the landward side of coastal 
sand dunes in the tropics. Nearly every one of the fossil species 
is represented by forms found in the existing flora of the Florida 
keys or along the shores of peninsular Florida, some like Conocar pus 
flourishing equally well on either muddy or sandy shores. Every 
species (except Castanea) is represented in the American tropics, 
and four of these existing representatives (Conocarpus, Dodonaea, 
Rhizophora, and Sapindus) range northward to Bermuda in the 
path of the gulf stream. In looking over SCHIMPER’S classical 
Indo-malayan strand flora, the following forms, which are strictly 
comparable to the Georgia eocene plants, were noted as being 
more or less prominent elements in the oriental strand fore: 
Acrostichum (Chrysodium, 1 sp.), Dodonaea (1 sp.), Eugent4 (2 
species which are represented in the west African and American 
tropics by the allied genus Conocarpus), Ficus (1 sp.), M alapoenna 
(Litsaea, t sp.), Pisonia (4 sp.), Rhizophora (2 sp.), Sapindus (1 sp-); 
and Terminalia (1 sp.). Of these forms the Sapindus, T erminalta, 
Dodonaea, Ficus, Malapoenna, and Pisonia are more particularly 
elements of the littoral forest (beach jungle of Kurz, Barringionia 
formation of ScHimPER), while the others are integral members OF 
rather intimately associated with the mangrove or the nipa asso 
ations. It is really remarkable to what an extent the identified 
elements in the Claiborne flora corroborate one another and defi- 
nitely denote the character of their habitats, which were, on the 
one hand, mangrove swamps at certain points where the conditions 
were favorable, and elsewhere the vegetation of the rain forest 
which clothed the sandy beaches or was developed behind dune: 
which possibly formed the highest inner margin of the beach inplac®* 
