FLORA OF THE EOCENE EPOCH. 



91 



Cryptogamese 

 Phaneroorameoe 



Amber Flora, 

 60 

 102 



to be the produce of many Conifers of tMs epoch, such as 

 Peuce succinifera or Pinites succinifera, and Pinus Rinkianus. 

 It occurs in East Prussia in great quantity, and it is said that 

 many pieces of fossil wood occur there, which, when mode- 

 rately heated, give out a decided smell of amber. Connected 

 with these beds are found cones belonging to Pinites sylves- 

 trina and P. Pumilio-miocena, species nearly allied to the 

 living species ; others to Pinites Thomasianus and P. brachy- 

 lepis. Goeppert contrasts the present flora of Germany and 

 that of the Amber epoch as follows : — 



German Flora. 



6800 

 3454 



and gives the following specimens of two of the orders : — 



Ciipulifer^ . . 12 10 



Ericaceae ... 23 24 



(See remarks by Goeppert on the Amber Flora, etc., Edin. 



N. Phil. Journ. Ivi. 368; and Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. x. 



37.) In the lower Eocene of Heme 



Bay, Carruthers noticed a fern like 



Osmunda (Fig. 94), which he calls 



Osmundites Dowkeri (Plate I. Figs. 



8, 9). This specimen was silicified; 



starch grains contained in its cells, 



and the mycelium of a parasitic fungus 



traversing some of them, were perfectly 



preserved. Berkeley has detected in 



amber fossil fungi, which he has 



named Penicillium curtipes, Brachy- 



cladium Thomasinum, and Strepto- 



thrix spiralis.* Some Characese are also met with, as 



Fig. 94. Osmunda regalis, Royal Fern, having a bipinnate frond 

 and fructification in a spike-like form, the branches bearing sporangia. 



* Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist. 2d ser. ii. 380. 



