CHAP, in.] MEIOCENE FLORA ON THE CONTINENT. 49 



the highly-ornamented seeds which lie buried in the 

 sand and mud formed by the water. 



This flora is identified by Professor Heer with that of 

 the lower Meiocenes of France and Switzerland. 



Meiocene Flora of the Hebrides and Ireland. 



A flora similar to that of Bovey Tracey occurs in the 

 island of Mull under lava and volcanic ash, consisting 

 of the red wood (Sequoia Langsdorjti), hazel (Corylus 

 grossidentatus) , plane, and several other trees. It is 

 also met with in the lignites under the basalts of Antrim. 

 A fir tree (Pinus Plutonis) closely allied to the cluster 

 pine, a cypress, and a gum tree have been identified 

 from this deposit by Mr. Baily, and some of the leaves 

 strongly resemble the buckthorn, beech, and an evergreen 

 oak. In another place in Ireland, near Shane's Castle, 

 Lough Neagh, the ash-beds have yielded the red wood 

 and a species of plane (Platanus aceroides). 1 



Meiocene Flora on the Continent. 



The vegetation hitherto recorded in the British Isles 

 is but an insignificant fragment of the extraordinary 

 flora revealed by the labours of Professor Heer and others 

 on the mainland of Europe. The Meiocene forests of 

 France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy comprised forms 

 now met with only in widely remote parts of the earth, 

 and are of singular interest because of their testimony, 

 not merely as to climate, but also to a closer geogra- 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond. (1853), vii. 103 ; (1869), xxv. 357 ; 

 (1870), xxvi. 162. 



E 



