824 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 



2 GEORGE V., A. 1912 



In 1904 Knowlton recorded the occurrence of a Picea in the Upper Eocene 

 deposits at Kukak bay, Alaska, (33). This plant, which he designates as P. 

 harrimani, is represented by its cones only, but these are in a fine state of 

 preservation and permit of the inference that it most nearly resembles P. 

 sitchensis among existing species. 



The present evidence shows our knowledge of Picea in the fossil state to 

 be based upon the wood chiefly, though to some extent upon the cones as repre- 

 senting three species within the limits of the United States and Alaska, but 

 as these latter are in no way related species, they furnish no very precise basis 

 for conclusions respecting the geological age of the horizon from which P. 

 columbiensis has been derived. While our present limited knowledge of the 

 genus leads us to believe that it should be looked for in the early Cretaceous at 

 least, its present aspect is definitely Tertiary and chiefly Eocene. 



Cupressoxylon was first recognized by Penhallow (47) in the Cretaceous 

 formation of Medicine Hat, where the wood was found in abundance. Its more 

 recent appearance in the deposits of the Kettle river, where it is also found in the 

 form of wood, gives somewhat conclusive evidence of the wider range of distri- 

 bution of some of our existing species. This is wholly in accord with the general 

 geological history of the genus, since it is found that under whatever specific 

 name it may be recorded, it ranges from the Lower Cretaceous to the Eocene, 

 a distribution which is not essentially affected by the fact that at least some of 

 ihe species now assigned to the provisional genus Cupressinoxylon, may more 

 properly belong to Sequoia. At the same time, since C. macrocarpoides occurs 

 in a well recognized Cretaceous deposit, as well as in those of the Kettle river, 

 it is clear that it cannot be held to be representative in any exclusive sense, 

 cf any particular age, and all we can say of it at the present time is, that it 

 ranges from the Upper Cretaceous upward. 



The genus Taxodium is a very cosmopolitan one, having a very wide range 

 in geological time. Indeed, it may be said to exhibit an almost unbroken con- 

 tinuity of occurrence from the Kootanie and Potomac formations, through the 

 Cretaceous to the Miocene Tertiary, and even to more recent deposits, where it 

 connects directly with the existing species of Bald Cypress. The history of 

 Taxodium distichum miocenum as originally defined by Heer, but as now com- 

 monly designated by the name Taxodium distichum, affords simply an instruc- 

 tive illustration of the relation of special types to particular horizons, a relation 

 made all the more instructive because of the generally associated Taxodium 

 occidentale and Glyptostrobus europarus. T. occidentale is a species of much 

 more restricted distribution, but it is a well defined Tertiary type. 



Lesquereux (42: p. 223), Newberry (46: p. 22), and Dawson (10: p. 79), 

 have all shown Taxodium distichum to be a constituent of both the Miocene 

 and Eocene Floras; while the more recent determinations of Penhallow (1: pp. 

 7 and '8) have proved it to be a component of the Oligocene at Quilchena and 

 Coutlee, British Columbia, and those of Knowlton (34: p. 27), that it is a 

 feature of the Upper Miocene of the John Day Basin, Oregon. It is neverthe- 

 less true, as shown by Penhallow, that this species is also a well recognized 



