222 THE NATURAL HISTOET EEYIEW. 



" The Laurustinus is more prevalent in our neiglibourhood. Its 

 splendid bushes still adorn some of the ravines of the Gardiole and the 

 picturesque rocks of the Capouladoux, but it is no longer to be seen 

 on the banks of the Lez. 



" Other species have abandoned the low country. Finns Salz- 

 vianni only grows in our neighbourhood on one of the bulwarks of 

 tlie Serane range above St. Gruilhem-le-Desert. The Acer opuli- 

 folium is only on the main range of the Cevennes. 



" Some plants have become quite strangers to our country. The 

 flowering Ash, the Laricio pine, the Acer neapolitanum now inhabit 

 more southern regions, such as Italy, Corsica and the Balearic 

 islands. The Pyracantha, less exclusively southern, has left traces of 

 its former existence in the country. Authors give several French 

 stations, even on the borders of the Montpellier district 



"These losses have been compensated for by the new arrivals 

 which have invaded the country and now predominate in it. At the 

 present day Quercus coccifera characterises our garrigues, to which it 

 has given its name {GarouiUe,m the local patois). Cistuses, Genista 

 scorjpluSj Thyme, Eosemary and Lavender remind every southern 

 botanist of these vast spaces scorched by our burning sun. None of 

 these plants are represented in our tufas. Nor do those of Provence 

 and Italy contain any trace of them. Had they existed at the epoch 

 when these calcareous masses were being deposited, they must have 

 been rare, they could not have escaped the encrustation of these 

 springs if they had been scattered with the same profusion as at the 

 present day." 



In the above sketch there are some striking points, much that is 

 very probable, a few facts that must be considered as demonstrated, 

 but some also, especially the negative points, which appear to us 

 purely hypothetical, without any evidence on which to found them. 

 That the majority of the species comprised in the above list existed 

 on the spot at the period of the formation of the tufa must now be 

 taken as a proved fact ; that the climatological condition of the coun- 

 try has not materially altered since that epoch may also be safely 

 concluded from the fact that the plants known to have withdrawn 

 from it are still found in nearly similar regions ; if some have retired 

 somewhat southward others again have retreated in a contrary 

 direction, and all will now flourish in the vicinity if brought there ; 

 but to deduce from the fragments of these thirty species and from 

 their relative abundance, any idea of the general vegetation of the 



