PLIOCENE FOEMATION. 175 



As yet no animal remains have been discovered in these tuffs, 

 and there is only one species of plant common to them and the 

 lignites ; but the mixture of extinct forms of plants with others 

 still existing renders it probable that the two deposits are of the 

 same date. In favour of this view it may be noted that in the 

 tuff of Aygalades, in the neighbourhood of Marseilles, a similar 

 mixture occurs, comprising both extinct and living species of 

 plants, among which are found the hazel, Salix viminalis, the 

 lime-tree, the fig, Cercis, and laurel, and with them the remains 

 of Elephas antiquus, Falc. Consequently, at the time when 

 this elephant inhabited Europe, the flora on both sides of the 

 Alps had the same character as at present, and consisted for the 

 most part of the same species ; whilst in the intervening Pliocene 

 period the Italian flora differed materially from that now living 

 in Switzerland. To this Pliocene period should be referred the 

 lignites of Gandino, near Bergamo, and those of La Folia d'ln- 

 dune, on the Lake of Varese, in Lombardy. In both localities 

 are found a walnut (Juglans tephrodes, Ung.) which is remark- 

 ably like an American species (J. dnerea], and shows that some 

 American forms continued into Pliocene times. 



The same species of walnut occurs also in the Pliocene lig- 

 nites of Wetterau, which are united by it and by a species of 

 pine * (Pinus Cortesii, Brongn.) with the Pliocene formation of 

 Italy. And, curiously enough, two of the Utznach plants also 

 occur in it, namely the mountain-pine and the water-lily (Holo- 

 pleura Victoria, Gasp.) ; so that, owing to the species just men- 

 tioned, these lignites form the transition between the Pliocene 

 and the Utznach formations. To the same period probably 

 belong the lignites of Rippersrode, in Thuringia, from which 

 Prof. Heer has seen some species known to occur in the 

 uppermost lignites of Wetterau (Corylus bulbifera, Ludw., C. 

 ventrosa, Ludw., Magnolia cor, Ludw., and Cytisus reniculus, 

 Ludw.) . 



* Ludwig has described it as Pinus resinosa and Schnittspani (Palseonto- 

 graphica, Band v. Taf. xviii.) The Pinus represented in Taf. xix. fig. 4 is 

 probably P. Abies, Linn. That shown in Taf. xix. fig. 1 Prof. Heer at first 

 regarded as P. sylvestris, but the strongly marked and convex shields are in 

 favour of its being P. montanct. 



