No. 544] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 215 



ley of the Mackenzie, are found remains of Sequoia, Tax- 

 odium, Thuya, Uhnus, PopuJus, Vifis, Platanus, Sapin- 

 dus, Viburnum, Corylus, Juglans, Hicoria, etc., etc. From 

 this array we feel justified in assuming a cool to mild 

 temperate climate for this early Eocene flora, and further, 

 from the presence of numerous, often thick beds of lig- 

 nite, that there was a much higher precipitation than at 

 present. 



A layer of fan-palm leaves a foot in thickness in a for- 

 mation in northern Washington indicates climatic re- 

 quirements in which the minimum temperature did not 

 fall below 42° F. The presence of numerous West In- 

 dian types in the Miocene lake beds of Florissant, Colo- 

 rado, would alone point to almost tropical conditions, but 

 as these are associated with others of more northern 

 affinities, it seems safe to predicate at least a warm tem- 

 perate, or possibly sub-tropical climate. 



II. The Eelations of Paleobotany to Botany 

 1. Phytogeny and Taxonomy 



PROFESSOR JOHN M. COULTER 

 University of Chicago 



It is impossible to disentangle morphology and phy- 

 logeny, for the largest motive in modern morphology is 

 to construct phylogenies. An excessive amount of over- 

 lapping will be avoided in this paper by laying the em- 

 phasis upon the inferences to be drawn from morpho- 

 logical investigations as to probable lines of descent, 

 rather than upon the morphological results themselves. 



It should be kept clearly in mind that the material of 

 paleobotany, as indicated by the program, is not always 

 used to contribute to the science of botany. The determi- 

 nations of plants in the interest of geological horizons are 

 of immense service to geology, but of comparatively little 

 value to botany. This means that some paleobotanists 

 are geologists, and some are botanists, and it is the work 

 of the latter that concerns us at this time. 



