LIFE ON THE EARTH. 117 



perhaps, blown into these latter situations with Neur- 

 opterous and Coleopterous Insects, among the lat- 

 ter, Bupresticbe and Curculionidse. In the Palaeozoic 

 ages are no Cycadaceae; in the Neozoic no Lepido- 

 dendra; Ferns abound in several of the deposits in 

 and above the Upper Devonian Strata. 



In the lowest beds of the Lias and passage-beds 

 from the Trias, Insects have been collected at the 

 Cliffs of Aust, Westbury and Wainlode, and at several 

 other places in the Vale of the Severn, probably 

 blown into shallow salt water, a common circum- 

 stance on the coasts. Others occur more abundantly 

 in the Vale of Wardour and Pur beck 1 . The census 

 of the fossil orders of Insects runs thus : 



Csenozoic. . .Coleoptera (Copris, Donacia, Harpalus,) in Pleisto- 

 cene beds, at Mundsley, Norfolk. 

 (In France most of the Orders of Insects are 

 found in freshwater beds at Aix in Provence). 

 Mesozoic ...Purbeck beds, Coleoptera, Neuroptera, Ortho- 



ptera, Homoptera, Diptera. 

 Oolite of Stonesfield, Coleoptera, Neuroptera. 

 Lias of Severn Vale, Coleoptera, Neuroptera, 



Orthoptera, Homoptera, Diptera. 

 Palaeozoic... Coal-formation, Coleoptera, Neuroptera. 



Terrestrial Saurian Reptiles acquired extraordi- 

 nary magnitude in the Oolitic period, and exhibit as 



1 Brodie, On Fossil Insects. Westwood has determined many 

 of the orders and genera. 



