The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-10
REMARKABLE FLORA
 OF EARLY WORLD
Fossil Trees and Plants of Millions Of Years Ago Found in South Carolina and Georgia Indicate an Almost Tropical Climate

By count of the annual rings in the trunk of one of the giant se- quoias of California, 1t has been as certained that nearly 5000 years, or the major portion of recorded human history, has passed across the stage since that tree was a. seeding. But long as this period seems when gagged by human achievement, it is a frac- ton of time. almost too small to be. measured when compared with the remote geologic age during which cer-s tain of the ancestors of the Califor-l nian giant tree were living along our Atlantic coast. The ancient vegeta- ton which grew in South Carolina and Georgia during Upper Cretaceous and Eocene time--or, as geoIogists state, has been made the subject of an ex- haustive investigation by Edward WiIber Berry, report on which has just. been published by the United States Geological Survey as Profes sional Paper 84. The earlier of these fossil <doras. that of the Upper Cre- 1aceous. embraces nearly one hum dred species of wholly extinct plants and as the ma jority of them are be- neved to have been trees or shrubB. it is interesting to compare them with the vegetation now living in the same area.
 Tn. addition to the sequoia or .sbig tree,s now confined to the Pacific coast, there were three Kinds of arau- carias or Norfolk Island pines, which at the present time live only in South America and Australia; a pine with the leaves in clusters of three as in the living pitch pine. and a number of cypress-1i<e trees which were once widely spread over the world but ara nows extinct-j There was also a fan palm with very large leaves. which was perhaps the remote ancestor of the palmetto. Among the deciduous trees there were wax berries (A1yrica) of two kinds, waInuts, many willows With long, narrow leaves, oaks of the type of the living black oak, fig trees Of many kinds, and several Inagno- lias. Among the smaller trees or shrubs there were soapberries (Sapin- .dus1, bittersweet, sumac, laure1s, and sciEaamons nearest to forms now con- fined to the Old World, and three kinG9' Of eucalyptus, the living rep to Australia The remote ancestors of the persimmon were also present, as well as a number of other kinds that are without vernacular names.
 From the careful study of this an- cient fora which has been preserved in fossil form in the rocks. t has been possible to draw certain tenta- tive though apparently reasonable conclusions as to the conditions which prevailed in South Carolina and VI Indieate that shallow seas extended inland over 100 miles from the pres ent Atlantic coast; that there was considerable elevation and relief of the Piedmont area to the west; that the river gradients were high and the streams numerous and more or less terrential in character; and that there were swamps along the lower courses Of the streams
 The fossil plants indicate that there was a. mild though not a. strictly trip teal climate, without marked season al changes-in fact there is no evil dence that frost occurred. The rain fall was abundant, as shown by tho general character of the flora, as well as by certain features observed on some of the leaves and known as the "drtnping points,
 The later or Eocene flora has been found only in the State of Georg1a and is relatively small, as it numbers only IT species.
 All the species represent northward from Equatorial America. They in clude West Indian palms, plants of the wonderful nangrove swamps that skirt the tidal shores in the Tropics of both henisp heres, and remains of the golden fern whose present-day descendants lead a gregarious exist ence in the coastal swamps of the tor rid zone. All these Eocene plants are types of the Florida keys, Aptil-