1540 



PHANEROGAMS. 



Bromeliaceoe, the typical Bromelia apparently occurs in the same de- 

 posits. Other fossils referred to these families are, however, distinct. 



Order 2. Enantioblastte. — There is some uncertainty as to 

 whether this small order is represented in a fossil condition, but it 

 is not improbable that Eriocaulon occurs in the Tertiary of the 

 United States. 



Order 3. Spadiciflor^e. — With this order, which comprises the 

 Palms, Screw-pines, and Arums, we come to one of considerable 

 palasontological importance, as including several of the earliest 

 representatives of the class. They are typically tall plants, with 

 large wide-spreading leaves, and the inflorescence forming a spadix, 

 generally enveloped in a large spathe, and without a petalled peri- 

 anth ; the seed being generally large, and often of huge size. The 

 first family of the Palmaceai now includes about one thousand species 

 from the warmer regions of the globe, and dates back to the Upper 

 Cretaceous. In the higher Cretaceous of Europe we meet with Palms 

 referred to the extinct genus Flabellaria, which also ranges into the 

 Miocene, and has been recorded from the Cretaceous of the United 

 States. Fasciculites, from the Cretaceous of Greenland, is regarded 



Fig. 1404. — A, Leaf of Chamcerops helvetica ; from the Upper Miocene of Switzerland. 

 B, Leaf of Sabal major; from the Lower Miocene of France. Reduced. 



with some hesitation as a Palm-stem ; and Mr Gardner figures Palm- 

 wood from the Folkestone Gault ; but many other earlier fossils, 

 such as Paltzospathe, are not Palms at all. In the Tertiary Palms 

 are abundant, and from the Eocene to the Upper Miocene we meet 

 with forms with pinnate leaves allied to the existing Phoenix (Date- 

 palm), which have been described under that name, or as Phceni- 

 cites and Calamopsis. Of the group with fan-like leaves we have 

 already mentioned Flabellaria^ and throughout the European Ter- 

 tiary there occur leaves referred to the Old World genus Chamcerops 

 and to Sabal of North America (fig. 1404); both of which genera 

 have a more northerly distribution than. any other types. Sabal 



