Pliocene Epoch. 93 



the numerous impressions of which M. Unger has collected, 

 studied, and determined, partly published by him in his Chlo- 

 ris Protogoea^ and presented altogether in a special enumera- 

 tion of these species recently published under the title of 

 Flora of Parschlug. In this locality alone, M. linger has 

 recognised and classified 140 different species ; it is the most 

 numerous local Flora with which we are acquainted, and the 



geological epochs. If we compare, namely, the Tertiary fossil plants of Europe 

 with those living on the spot now, we shall be struck with the differences of 

 about the same value as those already mentioned between the eastern and 

 western coasts of the continents under the same latitudes. Compare, for 

 Instance, a list of the fossil trees and shrubs from ffiningen, with a cata- 

 logue of trees and ^hrubs of the eastern and western coasts, both of 

 Europe, Asia, and North America, and it will be seen that the differences 

 they exhibit scarcely go beyond those shewn by these different Florae under the 

 same latitudes. But what is quite extraordinary and unexpected is the fact, 

 that the European fossil plants of that locality resemble more closely the trees 

 and shrubs which grow at present in the eastern parts of North America, than 

 those of any other part of the world ; thus, allowing us to express correctly the 

 differences already mentioned between the vegetation of the eastern and western 

 coasts of the continents, by saying that the present eastern American flora, and 

 I may add, the fauna also,* and probably also that of eastern Asia, have a more an- 

 cient character than those of Europe and of western North America. The plants, 

 especially the trees and shrubs growing in our days in this country and in 

 Japan, are, as it were, old fashioned ; they bear the mark of former ages — a 

 peculiarity which agrees with the general aspect of North America ; the geo- 

 logical structure of which indicates that this region was a large continent long 

 before the extensive tracts of land had been lifted above the level of the sea in 

 any other part of the world. 



<' The extraordinary analogy which exists between the present Flora and Fauna 

 of North America, and the fossils of the Miocene period in Europe, would also 

 give a valuable hint with respect to the mean annual temperature of that geo- 

 logical period. 



" (Eningen, for instance, whose fossils of all classes have perhaps been more 

 fully studied than those of any other locality, could not have enjoyed, during 

 that period, a tropical or even a subtropical climate, such as has often been as- 

 signed to it, if we can at all rely upon the indications of its Flora ; for this is so 

 similar to that of Charleston, South Carolina, that the highest mean annual tem- 

 perature we can ascribe to the Miocene epoch in central Europe must be re- 

 duced to about 60° Fah. ; that is to say, we infer from its fossil vegetation that 

 CEningen had, during the Tei'tiary times, the climate of the warm temperate 



• The characteristic genera Lagomys, Cheldyra, and the large Salamanders with perma- 

 nent gills, remind us of the fossils of CEningen, for the present fauna of Japan, as well as 

 the Li«iuidambar,Carya, Taxo<lium, Gleditschia, &c., 8ic. 



