THE AXCIEXT AND MODERX FLOEAS OF Z^rOXTPELJ.IEK. 221 



besides Bosa sempe^'virens, Populus alia and Celiis australis, of wliich 

 tlie determination is uncertain. 



Every one of the above species is still living and abundant in cen- 

 tral and southern Europe. Twenty-one of the thirty are still com- 

 mon in the immediate vicinity of the deposits. Three, Laurus nohi- 

 lis, Viburnuon times and Marchantia co7iica are in the district, but not 

 now in the valley of the Lez, one, Acer opulifolium, is no nearer than 

 the Cevennes, four, Acer neapolitanuvi, Fraxinus orniis, Cotoneaster 

 pyracantha and Buhia angustifolia have withdrawn to Provence or 

 Italy. The ninth is either Finns laricio, which is abundant in 

 Corsica, or P. Salzmanni, Dun. probably a variety of the Laricio still 

 found above St. Gruilhem-le-Desert on the Herault. 



Erom these data Dr. Planchon gives the following sketch of what 

 he conceives to have been the general aspect of vegetation at the 

 period of the formation of the tufas, and the principal changes which 

 have since taken place. 



" The Baytree with its evergreen foliage must have been the pre- 

 dominant shrub. By its side flourished the Acer opulifolium, the 

 Montpellier Maple, the common Oak, and the Ilex. The Laurus- 

 tinus grew on the garrigues covered with Phillyrea, Box and thickets 

 of Brambles. The 'Clematis, the wild Vine and the Smilax entangled 

 the bushes with their festoons of verdure. The wild Eig hung then 

 ae now suspended from the crags. A grove of Laricio crowned the 

 eminence on which now lies the cemetery of Castelnau, the Pyracanth 

 with its bunches of coral adorned the Bel-Air hill. On the water's 

 edge grew the "Willows, Alders and Abeles, overshadowing the 

 Brake-fern and the Harts-tongue, there also the flowering Ash 

 mingled its foliage with that of the common Ash. The swamps were 

 studded with Typhas and Sparganiums, and the dense fronds of Mar- 

 chantia covered as with a carpet the moist sides of the cascades. 



" But since that time the pictiu'e has undergone many a change. 

 Several species then very common have disappeared from the basin of 

 the Lez ; others are become rare, they have given way to the invad- 

 ing plants which are now predominant in the country and give it its 

 special character. 



" The Baytree has taken refuge on the northern declivity of the 

 Pic de St. Loup, and in the rocks of St. Martin- de-L on dres, where 

 it forms a few tufts lost in the general landscape. In Magnol's 

 time, two centuries since, some specimens wei-e still to be seen near 

 the village of Castelnau ; these were the last remains of the thickets 

 formerlv so flnurishino: iu Ihe valley. 



