LATER CRETACEOUS AND KAINOZOIC. 213 



ciated with this species another and more delicate fern, 

 the modem Davallia {Stenloma) tenuifolia, but this, un- 

 like its companion, no longer occurs in America, but is 

 found in the mountains of Asia. This is a curious illus- 

 tration of the fact that frail and delicate plants may be 

 more ancient than the mountains or plains on which 

 they live. 



There are also some Tery interesting and curious facts 

 in connection with the conifers of the Laramie. One of 

 the most common of these is a Thwja or arbor vitae (the 

 so-called " cedar " of Canada). The Laramie species has 

 been named T. interrupta by Newberry, but it approaches 

 Tery closely in its foliage to T. occidentalis, of eastern 

 Canada, while its fruit resembles that of the western 

 species, T. gigantea. 



Still more remarkable are the Sequoias to which we 

 have already referred, but which in the Laramie age seem 

 to have been spread over nearly aU North America. The 

 fossil species are of two types, representing respectively 

 the modern S. gigantea and 8. semper vir ens, and their 

 wood, as well as that of Thuja, is found in great abun- 

 dance in the lignites, and also in the form of silicified 

 trunks, and corresponds with that of the recent species. 

 The Laramie contains also conifers of the genera Glypto- 

 strobus, Taxodium, and Taxus ; and the genus Salisburia 

 or gingko — so characteristic of the Jurassic and Creta- 

 ceous — is still represented in America as well as in Europe 

 in the early Eocene. 



We have no palms in the Canadian or Scottish Palaeo- 

 cene, though I believe they are found further south. The 

 dicotyledonous trees are richly represented. Perhaps the 

 most conspicuous were three species of Platanus, the 

 leaves of which sometimes fill the sandstones, and one of 

 which, P. nobilis, Newberry, sometimes attains the gi- 

 gantic size of a foot or more in diameter of its blade. 

 The hazels are represented by a large-leaved species, 0. 

 20 



