30 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. n. 



palms were conspicuous. Gigantic aroids were also to 

 be seen, and various representatives of the family of 

 Sarsaparilla. There were groves of poplars, elms, laurels, 

 oaks, hornbeams, beeches, chestnuts, willows, planes, figs, 

 buckthorns, walnuts, maples, spindle-trees, and bread- 

 fruits. The Celtis or nettle-tree, several sorts of banksia, 

 and the Eucalyptus or gum-tree, may be noted among 

 the remarkable Australian genera presented by the 

 flora. Giant cacti also raised their forms like the 

 huge candelabra that overlook the arid deserts of New 

 Mexico. The tree trunks were garlanded with large 

 creepers belonging to the tropical families of Porana 

 and Bignonia. 



A similar group of vegetation has been identified by 

 Dr. Heer from Monte Bolca in Lombardy, from which 

 it may be inferred that the climate of Europe was more 

 uniform in mid Eocene times than it is at the present 

 day. 



The Mid Eocene Mammalia. 



These forests afforded shelter and food to a fauna of 

 which very scant traces have been identified. In this 

 country the Lophiodon of Bracklesham, an animal re- 

 sembling the tapir in general appearance, and presenting 

 great -variations in size, is the only well-defined mam- 

 malian species. In France 1 it is associated with two 

 tapiroid genera (PachynolopJius, Pro-palceotherium) , and 

 animals allied to the hogs and omnivorous carnivores 

 (Anchilophus, Dichobune, Heterohyus). There also were 

 true carnivores of uncertain affinities, one as large as 

 a lion, a second about the size of a badger, and a 



1 Gervais, Zool. et Pal. Frang. p. 327. In this view of the French mid 

 Eocene mammalia, I have followed Gervais rather than Gaudry. 



