It has preserved its characteristic types, such as Magnolia, Liriodendron, Liquidambar, Torreya, Taxodium and Sequoia.
There were oaks, beeches (scarcely distinguishable from existing species), birches, planes and willows (one closely related to the living Salix candida), laurels, represented by Sassafras and Cinnamomum, magnolias and tulip trees (Liriodendron), myrtles, Liquidambar, Diospyros and ivy.
China has 66 species of Quercus, 35 of Vitis, 2 of Aesculus, 42 of Acer, 33 Magnoliaceae (including two species of Liriodendron), 12 Anonaceae, 71 Ternstroemiaceae (including the tea-plant), and 4 of Clethra, which has a solitary western representative in Madeira.
We know that this was the case with some, such as Liriodendron; and in Eucalyptus we see the converse, where a genus formerly American is now confined to a far distant region.
The American Liriodendron still flourished in Europe.