OF CREATION. 



269 



Fig. Ill 



fauna of the oldest tertiary seas was totally discon- 

 nected from that of the cretaceous epoch. 



The first tertiary land concerning which we have 

 distinct knowledge was richly clothed by a vegetation, 

 a good deal of whose general character is recognised 

 by examining the fruits of trees and fragments of wood 

 found abundantly in the Isle of Sheppey. These fos- 

 sils are exceedingly numerous and varied, and the 

 fruits obtained from the single locality just alluded to 

 include several hundred species, all of which are dif- 

 ferent from existing and known plants, although many 

 of them seem closely allied to generic forms now met 

 with in warmer climates than those 

 at present characterising similar la- 

 titudes. A portion of one of these 

 fruits is figured in the annexed cut; it 

 marks the existence of a five-seeded 

 fruit which was enveloped in a mass 

 of downy filamentous structure. The plant was pro- 

 bably allied to the natural order of Malvaceae. There 

 is, indeed, nothing in these plants which removes 

 them at once and in a marked manner from the exist- 

 ing type ; and the most remarkable fact concerning 

 them as a group is the preponderance Fig. 112 



of species allied to the palms, some 

 of them being apparently interme- 

 diate between the cocoa-nut and the 

 Pandanus, or screw- pine well- 

 known and common tropical plants, NIPADITKS.+ 



* So called from the name of a botanist, J. Hight, Esq. 



f A very common fruit in Sheppey. It contains a single seed nearly 

 in the centre, closely resembling that of the cocoa-nut, and with a very 

 hard shell. 



HIGHTEA.* 



