260 THE STORY OF THE EAETH AKD MAN. 



change in the Tertiary period, and it has done so in 

 animals as well as in plants. 



The following description of the flora of Bovey is 

 given, with slight alteration, in the words of Dr. 

 Heer, in his memoir on that district. The woods 

 that covered the slopes consisted mainly of a huge 

 pine-tree (sequoia), whoso figure resembled in all 

 probability its highly-admired cousin, the giant 

 Wellingtonia of California. The leafy trees of most 

 frequent occurrence were the cinnamon and an ever- 

 green oak like those now seen in Mexico. The ever- 

 green figs, the custard apples, and allies of the Cape 

 jasmine, were rarer. The trees were festooned with 

 vines, beside which the prickly rotang palm twined 

 its snake-like form. In the shade of the forest throve 

 numerous ferns, one species of which formed trees of 

 imposing grandeur, and there were masses of under- 

 wood belonging to various species of Nyssa, like the 

 tupelos and sour-gums of North America. This is a 

 true picture, based on actual facts, of the vegetation 

 of England in the Miocene age. 



But all the other wonders of the Miocene flora are 

 thrown into the shade by the discoveries of plants of 

 this age which have recently been made in Greenland, 

 a region now bound up in what we poetically call 

 eternal ice, but which in the Miocene was a fair and 

 verdant land, rejoicing in a mild climate and rich 

 vegetation. The beds containing these specimens 

 occur in various places in North Greenland ; and the 

 principal locality, Atane-Kerdluk, is in lat. 70 N., 



