New Britain herald., 1914-08-04
PLANTS AND TREES OF
 MILLION YEARS AGO
Exhaustive Investigation Madc b) Udted States Geological Survey.

Washington, Aug. 4.-By a count of the annual rings in the trunk of one of the giant sequoias of Califor- nit, it has been ascertained that near ly 5000 years, or the major portion of recorded human history, has passed across the stage since that tree was a seeding.
 But long as it's period seems when gauged by human achievement it is fraction of time almost too small to be measured when compared with the remote geologic age during which certain of the, ancestors of the Cal ifornian giant tree were living along our Atlantic coast. The ancient veg citation which grew in South Carolina and Georgia during Upper Cretaceous aid EOcene time, or, as geOlOgists state, at least several million years ago, has been made the subject of exhaustive investigation by the United States Geological Survey.
 The earlier of these fossil tioras, that of the Upper Cretaceous en- wholly extinct plants, and as the ma jority of them are believed to have been trees or shrubs it is interest
  citation now living in the same area.
 Other Ancient Pines.
 In addition to the sequoia or "big tree," now confined to the Pacific coast, there are three kinds of Arau- carias or Norfolk Island pines, which at the present time live only in South America and Australia; pine with the leaves in clusters of three as in the living pitch pine, and a number of cypresslike trees which were once widely spread over the world, but are now extinct. 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 (Myrica) of two kinds, walnuts, many willows with long, narrow leaves, oaks of the type of the living black oak, fig trees of many kinds and several magnolits. Among the smaller trees of shrubs there were soap berries (sapindus), i, bittersweet, sumac, laurels and cin- nearest to forms now confined to the Old World, and three kinds of eucalyptus, the living representa- tives of which are now native to Aus tralia. The remote ancestors of the persimmon were also present, as we'll as number of other kinds that are without vernacular names.
 Sea Extended Inland.
 From the careful study of this an- cient flora which has been preserved in fossil form in the rocks it has been possible to draw certain tentative though apparently reasonable conclu- sions as to the conditions which pre- vailed in South Carolina and Georgia when it was growing. These indi- cate that shallow seas extended in- land over 100 miles from the present Atlantic coast; that there was a con- siderable elevation and relief of the Piedmont area to the west; that the river gradients were high and the streams numerous and more or less tcrrential in character; and that there were swamps along the lower courses of the streams.
 The fossil plants indicate that the1 e vas mild though not a strictly trop- ical climate, without marked season. al changes; in fact there Is no evil dence that frost occurred. The rain fall was abundant, as shown by the general character of the flora. as we'll as by certain features observed on some of the leaves and known as the points,
 Only Seventeen Species.
 The later or Eoncene flora has been found only in the state of Georgia and is relatively small, as it num- bers only seventeen species.
 All the species represent northward migrants along the Eocene seacoast from equatorial America. They in clude West Indian palms, plants of the wonderful mangrove swamps that skirt the tidal shores in the tropics Of both hemispheres and remains of the golden fern, whose present day de- scendents lead gregarious exis- tence in the coastal swamps of the torrid zone. All these Eocene plants are types of the Florida keys, Antil- lean islands and Central American shores and clearly indicate that in Middle Eocene time the climate of Georgia was much warmer than if was either during the Upper Creta- ceous epoch or at present.