NEW PUBLICATIONS. 183 
had a priori considered the beds as belonging to the cretaceous for- 
mation, yet they have been unable to obtain any proof that they belong 
more to that formation than to any other posterior to the carboniferous 
period. And the palseontological evidence does not give much assist- 
ance. The vegetable remains occur in plastic clays (below beds equi- 
valent to the Gault), and were found during excavations in the hamlet 
of Baume, near La Louviere ; they consist of numerous true coniferous 
cones, generally very well preserved ; pieces of resin ; and masses con- 
taining coniferous wood, cycadean fronds, scales of cones, and frag- 
ments of acicular and trigonal leaves belonging to the genus Pimm. 
The cones belong to eight species of Pima. It has not been pos- 
sible to refer the specimens of wood to the different species founded on 
the characters of the cones. 
The flora of La Louviere, as at present determined, probably repre- 
sents the vegetation of a mountainous country, being composed almost 
exclusively of conifers ; however, further explorations among the cre- 
taceous strata of Hainaut may modify this very exceptional facies of 
its vegetation. 
The flora of La Louviere presents the remarkable peculiarity of pos- 
sessing but few species in common with any of the cretaceous floras at 
present known. England, Saxony, Silesia, Moravia, have yielded cre- 
taceous conifers, but they bear little or no relation to the Belgian 
species. The Belgian Pinus Corneti approaches however to the Abies 
ottonga, Lind., of the Greensand of England, and the Pinus Andrai 
has some affinity to the Pinus Quenstedli, Heer, of the cretaceous 
r ocks of Moravia. Although the different cretaceous floras of Europe 
Possess but few identical species, they all offer a more or less Indo- 
Australian character, except this singular flora in Belgium. In the 
^-Australian zone Araucaria, Podocarpus, Frenela, Phyllochdw, 
an <l Gnetum predominate, but none of them have been met with in 
this flora. 
The fossil flora of Hainaut has yielded several intermediate forms 
•KA serve as connecting links, and which have led the author to 
re tain in its entirety the genus Pinus as Linnaeus established it. Thus 
* is seen, by the descriptions of the species, that Pinus Corneti unites 
Ab «* to Cedrus ; Pinus Andrcii, Strobus to Pinaster ; andiW Ileeri, 
P - d *pressa, and P. Toilkzi are transition forms between Cembra and 
Strobus. 
