TERTIARY AGE. 



497 



strata, at the bottom of the Eocene, have afforded large numbers of 

 leaves of plants, in Mississippi, Arkansas, the Upper Missouri, and in 

 the coal-bearing series of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and other parts 

 of the Rocky Mountain region ; others have been obtained, together 

 with a variety of nuts, from a bed of Lignite at Brandon, Vt. Among 

 the plants, there are species of Plane-tree, Oak, Poplar, Maple, Hickory, 

 Dog-wood, Magnolia, Cinnamon, Fig, Conifers, Palms, etc. Palm- 

 leaves have been found as far north as the Upper Missouri region ; 

 one of them, of the Fan -palm family, — a species of Sabal, — when 

 entire, must have had a spread of twelve feet. 



Figs. 883-887. 

 884 



Fig. 883, Quercus myrtifolia (?); 884, Cinnamomum Mississippiense ; 885, Calamopsis Dame ; 386, 

 Fagus ferruginea (?) ; 887, Carpolithes irregularis. 



The plants of the beds of Mississippi, the Upper Missouri and other 

 localities mentioned, are closely related to those of the present era. 



Among the genera of the older Laramie group, distinguished hy Lesquereux and 

 Newberry, are (1) Angiosperms, — Quercus, Carya, Populus, Acer, Ulmus, Morvs, 

 Carpinus, Fagus, Juglans, Betula, Alnus, Carylus, Ilex, Negundo, Platanus, Sapindus, 

 Ficus, Cinnamomum, Laurus, Benzoin, Persea, Myrica, Salisburia, Cornus, Ceanothus, 

 Viburnum, Rhus, Olea, Rhamnus, Magnolia, Smilax, McCUntochia (an Arctic genus), 

 Eucalyptus (an Australian genus); (2) Conifers, — Thuia, Thuyites, Sequoia, Abies, 

 Taxodiam, Glyptostrobus ; Palms, — Sabal, Calamopsis, Flabellaria. The genera are 

 mainly those characteristic of North America at the present time. 



Golden, Colorado, has afforded the European Eocene species Sphenopteris Eocenica 

 Ettingshausen, of Mount Promina, Europe, Quercus angustiloba A. Brngt., of the 



