26 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. n. 



Flabellaria, Nipadites), the last of which is now repre- 

 sented only by the Nipa fruticans of the banks of rivers 

 in India and the Philippines. There were cypresses 

 (Solenostrobus, Frenelites, Callitritis) also allied to genera 

 living in Tasmania, and proteaceous plants allied to the 

 banksia, maples, poplars, and mimosas, as well as custard 

 apples, gourds, and melons, and ferns closely related to 

 the living Osmunda regalis. This luxuriant and tropical 

 vegetation has been proved by the recent discoveries of 

 Mr. Starkie Gardner, in the Pre-nummulitic deposits 

 at Newhaven, to have flourished in the British area, and 

 not to have been swept down, as was formerly supposed, 

 by a river flowing from a tropical region far away to 

 the south. In the London Clay of Sheppey it is repre- 

 sented mainly by fossil fruits, in the strata at New- 

 haven principally by leaves which show no sign of 

 having been conveyed long distances by water. 



The Lower Eocene Mammalia. 



The earliest Eocene mammals * found in Britain con- 

 sist of marsupials and a creature belonging to an extinct 

 family of the odd-toed (Perissodactyle) sub-order of 

 Herbivores. The opossum (Didelpliys Colchesteri) is to 

 be looked upon as a survival from the Secondary fauna, 

 and the Hyracoiherium, a small animal with a skull 

 the size of that of a hare, canine teeth resembling those 



1 Owen, Brit. Foss. Mammals, and Palaeontology. Gervais, Zoologie et 

 PalSontologie Franpaise, 1859. In determining the principal mammalia in 

 each of the Eocene faunas I have used the works of Owen, Gervais, and 

 Gaudry, as well as a list of the Eocene mammals in the British Museum 

 which has been prepared for me by the kindness of Mr. W. Davies, and 

 my own notes of the species in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge. 

 For systematic lists, see Appendix I. 



