ANGIOSPERM^E. 



1553 



Fig. 1418. — Leaf and seed 

 of Acer acutilobata; from 

 the Miocene of Germany. 

 One - third natural size. 

 (After Schenk.) 



before the Lower Miocene, although said to be abundant in the 

 earlier Tertiaries of Japan. Dodoncea, now mainly confined to the 

 southern hemispheres, is found in the Tertiaries of Europe and 

 North America. Again, Staphylea, which is unknown as a fossil in 

 Europe, is abundant in the Eocene of the 

 United States. The genus Acer (Maple and 

 Sycamore), now widely distributed, is repre- 

 sented by a great number of fossil species 

 ranging from the Laramie stage upwards. The 

 leaves are subject to great variation in form, 

 the most remarkable types occurring in the 

 Pliocene A. polymorpha ; the woodcut shows 

 a leaf of the more ordinary form together with 

 one of the characteristic winged seeds. 



The mainly tropical family Malpighiacece. 

 is represented in the Tertiary from the Upper 

 Eocene to the higher Miocene by several 

 existing genera, such as Stigmaphy/lum, 

 Banisteria, Tetrapte?'is, and ffircea, together 

 with the extinct Malpighiastrum, ranging 



from the Eocene to the Upper Miocene or Pliocene ; the whole of 

 the above-mentioned existing genera being now confined to America. 



In this place we may mention the family Platanacece, which is 

 placed by some writers in the Amentaceae or Urticinae, but of 

 which the ovary and the general ap- 

 pearance of the trees bring it near to 

 the Maples and Sycamores. Of the 

 single genus Platanus (fig. 141 9) there 

 is now one species in Asia Minor and 

 another in North America ; fossil forms 

 occurring as low down as the Dakota 

 Cretaceous and continuing through the 

 Tertiaries of both hemispheres, their 

 last appearance in Europe being in the 

 CEningen Miocene. 



Order 12. Frangulin^. — Among 

 the more important fossil forms found 

 in this order we may mention that in 

 the Celastracecz Euonomus (Spindle- 

 wood) makes its first known appearance in the Miocene by forms 

 allied to Indian types ; while Celastrus dates from the Cretaceous 

 of Greenland, and is known by a host of Tertiary species. The 

 two extinct genera Celastrophyllum and Celastrinites commence in 

 the Upper Cretaceous, the one continuing to the Pliocene but the 

 other unknown above the Eocene. Finally, remains from the 

 Miocene of Styria have been referred to the South American 



Fig. 1419. — Platanus aceroides. 

 a, Leaf; b, The core of a bundle of 

 pericarps ; c, A single fruit or peri- 

 carp, natural size. Upper Miocene. 



