454 



formations of the Continent, satisfies us that it belongs to a different 

 horizon. 



Among the twenty-six new species found at Bovey, several inter- 

 esting forms are found. The first place belongs to Sequoia Couttsice, 

 a conifer which we can illustrate by branches of every age, by cones 

 and seeds. It supplies a highly important link between Sequoia 

 Langsdorfii and S. Sternbergi, the widely distributed representatives 

 of S. sempervirens and S. gigantea (Wellingtonia), whose occurrence 

 in the present creation is confined to California. 



Of great interest also are two species of Vitis, of which the grape- 

 stones lie in the clays of Bovey. Three remarkable species of Fig, 

 the seeds of three new species of Nyssa and two of Annona, one new 

 water-lily (Nymphtea), and many highly ornate Carpolithes impart 

 to our knowledge of tertiary plants a most essential extension. 



It is highly probable that, at the period of the lower miocene, the 

 Bovey basin was occupied by an inland lake. The entire absence of 

 fresh -water shells, and, indeed, of aquatic animals generally, is cer- 

 tainly very extraordinary, and so is the absence of fruits of the 

 Chara, so abundant elsewhere in miocene freshwater deposits ; the 

 Nymphcea seeds, however, furnish a secure indication of fresh water. 

 We must not omit to notice that the parts of the basin hitherto 

 explored were towards the middle of the lake, and, in the case of the 

 under beds at least, at a considerable depth, which explains the 

 absence of bog-plants as well as of mammalian relics. 



The lignite beds consist almost entirely of tree-stems (probably 

 belonging in great measure to Sequoia Couttsice) which have appa- 

 rently been floated hither, not only from the circuit of the immediate 

 hills, but doubtless also from greater distances. 



The twenty-sixth bed in the series, immediately above the " thick 

 bed of sand," is a soft clay with numerous leaves of plants, and ripe 

 cones and seeds of Sequoia Couttsice ; the bed was probably formed 

 in autumn, and the plants it contains are due to the driftings of that 

 season. Higher up follows the bed (twenty-five) with fern rhizomes, 

 and occasionally pinnules of Pecopteris lignitum. The latter appears 

 in great abundance with branches of Sequoia still higher. 



As this under miocene formation is immediately succeeded by 

 that of the gravel and white clay, we have here a great hiatus : 

 either the middle and upper miocene, as well as the pliocene periods, 



