of Geological Periods. 375 



higher than that of Africa about the twentieth degree of south 

 latitude — that is to say, an annual mean of 22° C. ( = 71°*6 F.), 

 the elevation, which rises to 2000 feet, moderating, in the station 

 inhabited by Encephalartos, a climate already hotter than that 

 of the Cape. 



By the side of the Cycadeae of the Lias we have to place some 

 other indications, derived from other classes, which must not be 

 neglected. Two species from the Lias of Bayreuth, described 

 by M. Goppert under the names of Asterocarpus heterophyllus 

 and lanceolatus, resemble the Kaulfussia belonging to the family 

 Marattiese, according to M. A. Brongniart ; whilst the Taniopteris 

 Munsteri of Gop])ert, from the same locality, denotes a type 

 very analogous to Angiopterisj and certainly belonging to this 

 same group of the Marattiese. Goppert also indicates Hemite- 

 lites polypodioides as very analogous to Hemitelia speciosa (Kaulf.) 

 from Peru. 



The exceptional tribes of the existing state of things, of which 

 we have thus already seen the dawn, consequently reappear with 

 great persistency, and continue to show themselves : they now 

 preferably dwell beneath the tropics ; but they pass these limits 

 towards the south, as in the case of the Cycadeae, and are there- 

 fore not exclusively confined to them. 



In descending the series, the Oolite of Charmouth presents us 

 with the first important indication of the existence of the Pan- 

 danese, in the genus Podocarya of Buckland, established upon a 

 remarkable fruit, the relations of which with the existing Pan- 

 danese appear, according to M. Brongniart, to prove that this 

 family had already made its appearance at that epoch. 



Above the Oolites, towards the Neocomian, I must indicate 

 the true Araucarice^, of which I have seen fruits in a perfect 

 state in the collection of M. Hebert, Professor of Geology at the 

 Sorbonne. The character presented by the union of the seed 

 with the base of the ovuliferous scale cannot deceive us, and 

 establishes the presence of the genus, also indicated by numerous 

 impressions of the twigs figured by M. Dunker in his monograph 

 of the Wealden flora of North Germany. 



The AraucaricB of the section Eutacta form now-a-days a per- 

 fectly natural subtropical group, confined to New Holland and 

 some of the islands of the Pacific, advancing towards the north 

 but little beyond 15° S. lat., attaining 29° towards the south in 

 Norfolk Island, and capable of becoming adapted to a temperate 



* Besides the Arancarice, we must refer to true species of Pinus, of 

 which the cones and seeds have lately been indicated in the fluvio-marine 

 beds of the Neocomian stage of the basin of Paris by M. Cornucl, who has 

 described and figured tliese organs in the * Bulletin dc la Soc. Ge'olog. de 

 France, 2""^ ser. tome xxiii. p. G28, pi. IJ. 



