IIOHE-RHONEN FOREST. Ill 



2. The Hohe-Rhonen. 



We find a perfectly similar flora to that of the Canton de Vaud 

 in the lower lignite formation on the shore of the great lake 

 which took the place of the sea in the alpine zone. The marls 

 which enclose the lignites of the Hohe-Rhonen contain a rich 

 herbarium which gives us valuable information with regard to 

 this flora ; they have preserved to our time a fragment of the 

 marshy shore of the lake. Several beds of pebbles and sand 

 were spread over this locality ; and these probably by degrees 

 filled up the bed of the lake and converted it into a muddy 

 shore. Gradually a peat-moss was produced ; but its formation 

 was from time to time interrupted by deposits of mud, which 

 now lies between the lignites in the form of dark-coloured marl. 

 Large reeds and reed-maces (Typha latissima), numerous Cyperi r 

 sedges, and rushes, Spargania, and Irids leave no doubt as to the 

 nature of the soil ; nay, in Greith, we can even indicate certain 

 spots at which small brooks traversed the marshy forest ground, 

 marked by bands of brittle black marl filled with fruits carried 

 down by water (especially those of the maple), fine confervoid 

 filaments, and small bivalve shells (Cyclas). A Grewia (G. 

 crenata), the trilobate maple (Acer trilobatum), and species of 

 Liquidambar, willows, and Myrica must have grown there in 

 abundance, as great numbers of their remains are found in 

 the mud ; the Widdrmgtonice, Glyptostrobi, and Taocodia (swamp- 

 cypresses) were plentiful; and the last probably pushed for- 

 ward, like their existing relatives, into the soft ground, form- 

 ing the extreme oiitpost of the forest. Of palms we meet 

 with three fine species at Hohe-Hhonen (namely Sabal h<erin~ 

 giana, Phoenicites spectabilis, and Manicaria formosa) , where, in 

 conjunction with the numerous evergreen oaks and leathery- 

 leaved Proteaceae, laurels, and fig-trees, they clothed the shore 

 of the lake with an evergreen fringe. The abundant ferns (Las- 

 trcece, Aspidia, and species of Pteris with long feathery fronds) 

 probably grew in the shady forest, and, together with the bil- 

 berries, hazels, jujubes, sumachs, and buckthorns, formed its 

 undergrowth. 



In this primaeval wooded district dwelt a tapir and two species 

 of rhinoceros, a deer, and the Chalicotherium. They had, in the 



