334 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



tance which lies between them. One of the grounds alleged 

 for this opinion is the discovery of beds of marine deposits 

 "at elevations from 2000 to 6000>et" in a part of the 

 Taurus chain of mountains now included in the Turkish 

 province of Anatolia, the Lycian Taurus of ancient geo- 

 graphy. From their nature and position it is inferred that 

 at the close of a particular epoch, called the miocene (of a 

 still earlier date than the glacial epoch), the bed of a vast 

 sea, corresponding to the Mediterranean of the present day, 

 and to that part of the Atlantic which washes the western 

 shores of Europe, became "uniformly elevated," and thus 

 converted from sea into dry land. 



Another argument adduced is the position of a great 

 semicircular belt, formed by a kind of Seaweed, called 

 Gulf- weed (Sargassum bacciferum), ranging between the 15th 

 and 45th degrees of north latitude, and constant in its 

 place ; which, being apparently an irregular form of a Sea- 

 weed well known to be a coast-line plant (Sargassum vulgare), 

 is supposed to indicate the line of coast of an ancient land, 

 once extending "far into the Atlantic past the Azores," 

 over which that part of the Irish flora here spoken of " might 

 with facility have migrated.^ And not only is the existence 



* Dr. Hooker dissents from this way of accounting for the origin of the 

 Gulf-weed. 



