243 



the great persistence in the modern forms of the peculiar juvenile, opposite, cordate, sessile, and horizontal 

 leaves, a feature which must represent an ancestral character of long standing before the evolution of the 

 falcate leaves of the genus with twisted leaf-stalks and other xerophytic features. (See Deane, H., 

 'Observations on the Tertiary Flora of Australia; Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 15, 463-475, 1900; and 

 Cambage, R. H., 'Development and Distribution of the Genus Eucalyptus,' Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S.W., 

 1913.) 



" Among the numerous cretaceous fossils from North America now referred to Eucalyptus, there 

 is not a single one that does not exhibit characteristic features of Eugenia or Myrcia, especially of the 

 latter, a fact greatly impressed on me in handling a large amount of recent material during my study of 

 the American tertiary forms. . . . 



"... The types peculiar to the Australian region represent the relics of the cretaceous 

 radiation with numerous new types evolved on that continent in the manner that Andrews has suggested, 

 and at a comparatively recent date geologically. This is exactly the reverse of the hypothesis proposed 

 by Deane (op. cit.), but one that accords far better not only with the facts of geologic history, but also 

 with those of existing distribution, (p. 488.) 



"... About 150 fossil forms have been referred to the family Myrtacea?, one-third at least having 

 been described as species of Eucalyptus. At least half of these occur in the Cretaceous of all parts of the 

 world, but particularly throughout the Northern Hemisphere. They arc especially well represented in 

 North America, and the possibility that they are ancestral forms of Myrcia or Eugenia has already been 

 pointed out. A similar wide-spread distribution, but less specific variation, characterises the Eocene forms 

 that have been referred to Eucalyptus. The Oligocene records are all European, and the Miocene records 

 include both Europe and Asia." (p. 488.) (E. W. Berry in Bot. Gazette, vol. 59, pp. 486-488, 1915.) 



In U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Paper 91 (1916), " The Lower Eocene 

 Floras of South-eastern North America," E. W. Berry, we have the following notes : — 



Myrcia Vera Berry, n.sp., PI. xc, fig. 3. 



"... This species is of a type usually referred by paleobotanists to the allied genus Eucalyptus 

 or Myrtus, to which so many fossil species from the Upper Cretaceous to the present have been placed, 

 and it is not very different from the widespread Eucalyptus oceanica Unger of the European Tertiary.' 

 (p. 315.) 



Myrcia Bentonensis Berry, PL xc, figs. 7-9. 



" . . . It suggests fossil forms that have been referred to the genera Eucalyptus, Nerium, Ficus, 

 and Apocijnophyllum, but it appears to be most like the genus Myrcia, which has so many existing species 

 in the American tropics. It may be compared with certain existing species of Myrcia." (p. 317.) 



In U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Paper 112 (1919), by E. W. Berry, we 

 have — 



I. Eucalyptus angusta Velenovsky (ante, p. 226). 

 Berry, "U.S. Geol. Survey, Prof. Paper 84," p. 119, PL 20, figs. 2-4, 1914. 



" This species was recently discussed by me for the eastern Gulf area in the paper cited. 



" It may well be doubted whether this and the preceding species (Geinitzi) are correctly referred 

 to the genus Eucalyptus. Were it not for the havoc which would be wrought with the synonomy and the 

 obscuring of their bearing on geographic distribution, I would refer these form3 to the myrtaceous genus 

 Myrcia, which is so abundant in the existing flora of tropical America and whose foliage is not distinguishable 

 from the adult leaves of Eucalyptus. Myrcia is represented in the Eocene floras of the Mississippi 

 embayment by several species, some of which are undoubtedly descended from these Upper Cretaceous 

 species of so-called Eucalyptus." (p. 127.) 



