FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE TERTIARY STRATA. 



607 



formed by the union of the bases of the leaves, and covered by dis- 

 tinct scales. The latter is apparently a Monocotyledon, perhaps allied 



to Palms. Some fruits, resembling those of Palms, are also found. In 

 the Cretaceous system, there occur fossilized Dicotyledonous leaves 

 and fragments of wood, marked by perforations of marine animals. 

 Some of the Dicotyledons are Coniferous, others Cycadaceous. 



1188. Fossil Plants of the Tertiary Strata. With the Chalk 

 formation, the ancient condition of organized beings appears to have 

 ended, and a new one commences in the Tertiary series. The plants 

 of the Palaeozoic and Secondary series are all extinct. Those which 

 occur in the tertiary are totally different from all that have previously 

 appeared. With the chalk, Ansted says, we close, as it were, one 

 great volume of the history of animated creation. Every thing up to 

 this point belongs to the past; every thing on this side of it may be 

 ranked among indications of the present. New forms, new types of 

 organization, corresponding to different habits and altered circum- 

 stances, now replace those which have passed away. The conditions 

 under which animals and vegetables lived were changed, and a new 

 epoch commenced upon the earth. 



1189. Except a few doubtful fossils of the lowest organization, 

 there are none common to the secondary and tertiary periods. The 

 tertiary series are well seen in the south of Europe, Asia, and America. 

 In Britain, the tertiary deposits are met with in the London clay, in 

 Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, the Suffolk and Norfolk Crag, and in 



Fig. 819. Brachyphyllum, a Coniferous genus of the Oolitic system. 

 Fig. 820. Equisetum columnare, a fossil species of the Oolite. 



