115 
the base is now known to be slightly cuneate to typically decurrent, and 
the primaries vary from sub- to supra-basilar. I may add that in my 
material (that of Dawson is very carelessly and incorrectly drawn) the 
venation is typical of Sassafras, especially in the marginal hem and second- 
ary to each sinus, and in the base of the leaf — two regions in which I have 
shown that the venation is most diagnostic of this genus. 
This new material from Joseph creek enables me to correlate with 
Dawson's species, the forms from western Greenland which Heer errone- 
ously identified with the late Tertiary Sassafras ferretianum Massalongo, 
but which are not that species, and which do agree with some of the leaves 
that I have referred to Sassafras selwyni. 
The features and variations are well brought out in the accompanying 
illustrations. The genus has a most interesting history; common and 
varied in the Upper Cretaceous it becomes relatively rare in the early 
Tertiary, and is confined in the existing flora to a single species in south- 
eastern North America, and a couple of restricted species in southeastern 
Asia. It is another instance, along with Magnolia, Liriodendron, etc., of 
the pairing of these two regions botanically at the present time, and furn- 
ished another British Columbia Eocene type that emphasizes this re- 
semblance and probable filiation to the existing flora of southeastern Asia. 
Order, Umbellales 
Family, cornaceae 
Cornus suborbifera Lesquereux (?) 
Cornus suborbifera Lesquereux, Tert. FI., p. 243, PI. 42, fig. 2, 1878; Pen- 
hallow, Kept. Tert. PI. Brit. Col., p. 47, 1908. 
This species is recorded from the Upper Eocene of Alaska and Spitz- 
bergen, from the Laramie of Colorado, and from Tulameen river and 
Quilchena, B.C. As Penhallow remarks (op. cit.) it iB indistinguishable 
from the European Cornus orbifera Heer 1 and I have, therefore, queried 
my identification, the question mark indicating, not a doubt of its reference 
to Cornus, but a doubt whether it should be considered distinct from the 
European form, which is younger in age. 
Two characteristic specimens are represented in the collection from 
Burrard inlet. 
Order, Ebenales 
Family, ebenaceae 
Diospyros dawsoni Berry n. sp. 
Plate XIX, figure 3 
Leaves of ovate form, with acuminate tip and slightly decurrent base. 
Margins full, rounded, and entire. Length about 9 cm. Maximum width, 
in the middle part of the leaf, about 5 cm. Petiole stout, curved, enlarged 
proximad, about 1-75 cm. long. Midrib stout, curved. Secondaries 7 
alternate to opposite camptodrome pairs. Tertian es well marked and 
mostly percurrent. 
1 Heer, O., PI. Tert. Helv., vol. 3, p. 27, PI. 105, figs. 15-17, 1859. 
