CHAP, in.] MEIOCENE FLORA ON THE CONTINENT. 51 



must have formed a prominent feature in the landscape. 

 Of the feather-palms the Phoenicites may be compared 

 to the Piassava of Brazil, and had leaves two feet long, 

 while the Manicaria possessed great undivided erect 

 leaves springing from a lofty trunk. 



The Meiocene poplars of Switzerland belong to the 

 group of aspens, black poplars, balsam poplars, and 

 leather poplars, with evergreen leaves, the first two of 

 which are met with in Europe, Asia, and America, the 

 third in America and Asia, while the fourth is now only 

 found in Asia. The hornbeam and the hazel were pre- 

 sent, and of the oak no less than thirty-five species have 

 been determined, for the most part evergreens of Ameri- 

 can or Mediterranean types. There were also lindens, 

 maples, hollies, walnuts, ilices, cherry, plum, and almond 

 trees, mimosas and acacias, alders, birches, and other trees 

 familiar to our eyes. The genus Planera is the most in- 

 teresting Meiocene representative of the elm family, since 

 it ranges from central Italy as far as Greenland, and from 

 the canton of Vaud in the west to Tokay, in Hungary, on 

 the east. It probably formed woods on the low damp 

 grounds close to the rivers. At the present time it is 

 found in Crete, in Asia, south of the Caucasus, and in North 

 America. Myrtles formed dense copses, for the most part 

 evergreen; and the fig trees, represented by seventeen 

 species in the Swiss Meiocenes, belong to Indian and 

 American types, one of which is remarkably like the 

 Indiarubber tree (Ficus elastica), and another like the 

 bread-fruit. It is a curious fact that the present Euro- 

 pean fig-tree (Ficus carica] is absent from this flora. 

 The laurels were more abundant than the figs in Switzer- 

 land, the two most important species being the camphor 

 tree and Scheuchzer's cinnamon tree. These range 



