ANGIOSPERMiE. 1541 



major (fig. 1404) occurs in the Lower and Middle Miocene of 

 Europe, and also in the Miocene of Northern India ; while remains 

 of the same genus have been described from the Tertiary of the 

 United States. In the Lower Eocene of Europe and the Chalk of 

 Fuveau large fruits occur known as Nipadites (fig. 1405), from their 

 resemblance to the triangular fruits of the Oriental and Australasian 

 genus JV/pa, which some writers class with 

 the Palms and others with the Pandanacea. 

 There is considerable doubt whether the small 

 family Cyclanthacece, of tropical America, is 

 represented in a fossil state, but fragmentary 

 leaves from the Lower Eocene of Sezanne 

 have been described as Ludoviopsis, from their 

 supposed resemblance to those of Ludovica. 

 The well-known Pandanacece, or Screw-pines, 

 are trees or shrubs with long simple imbri- 

 cated leaves, usually spined on the edges and 

 back, and unisexual or polygamous flowers, Fig. 1405.— Fruit of mp a - 



. , ., , - , , r dites ellipticus ; from the 



without perianth, and covering the whole of London ciay. Reduced. 

 the spadix ; the fruit being in the form of 



drupes with single seeds, or berries with numerous seeds. All the 

 living forms are tropical. Leaves from the Tertiary and Upper 

 Cretaceous of Europe have been referred to Pandanus ; but it is a 

 question whether at least some of these do not indicate a distinct 

 genus. In the Cretaceous and Jurassic of Europe, extending as far 

 north as Greenland, there occur fruits to which the name Kaidacar- 

 pum 1 has been applied, and which are regarded by their describer, 

 Mr Carruthers, as undoubtedly Pandanaceous, although Dr Schenk 

 is not absolutely satisfied of the correctness of this reference. The 

 fruit consists of a thick spadix, with bunches of drupes, each of which 

 contains a single seed ; the whole arrangement being strikingly like 

 that of the existing Sussea. Podocarya is an apparently allied fruit 

 from the Inferior Oolite ; and some authorities regard Williamsonia 

 (p. 1528) as related to this genus. Goniolina, from the Kimeridgian 

 and Corallian of France, is founded on compound fruits which are 

 compared by Mr Gardner to those of Pandanus, and of which the 

 description is as follows : — 



" Small ovoid aggregated fruits, like those of Panda?ius, borne on a 

 naked, cylindrical, and relatively slender petiole. The heads of the very 

 numerous fruits are arranged in spirals and regular, pressed together, 

 and barely a millimetre across. They are of hexagonal shape, and six 

 keels extend from the angles and meet in a raised point at the centre. 

 The interior axis is cylindrical, and impressed by scars made by the 

 bases of the fruits, completing its likeness to Pa?ida?ius." 



1 Correctly Ccedacarpi 



