Abstract
A SHORT interpretation of the fossil herbaria of the rocks by the late Sir Albert Seward (J. Roy. Hort. Soc., 66, Pt. 6, June, 1941) provides a useful epitome of palæobotanical knowledge. The paper deals particularly with trees, and the story commences with Cercidiphyllum japonicum, an Eocene fossil species which is still indigenous in China and Japan. Cretaceous strata brought the first geological appearance of the genus Magnolia. Tulip–tree, plane, hazel and oak are present–day trees with stratigraphical antiquity. The maidenhair tree, Ginkgo biloba, is one of a group of plants which flourished in the Jurassic and Triassic periods. It is curious that many trees which now only appear in China and Japan were inhabitants of Europe and North America in earlier geological time; west and east seem to have changed places. The Norfolk Island pine, Araucaria excelsa, also had a divergent distribution in the past, for fossil leaves, cone scales and seeds were discovered in 1931 from Tertiary sediments in the Kerguelen Archipelago, where now is found only a scanty flora of flowering plants, ferns, mosses and lichens, but no trees.
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Trees of the Past. Nature 148, 162 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148162c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148162c0