386 DISTRIBUTION OF RECENT AND FOSSIL PALMS. 



more frequent occurrence of similar remains of this inte- 

 resting family, in the Tertiary formations of France, Swit- 

 zerland, and England, whilst they are comparatively rare 

 in strata of the Secondary and Transition series, suggests 

 the propriety of consigning to this part of our subject the 

 few observations we have to make on their history. 



The existing family of Palms* is supposed to consist of 

 nearly a thousand species, of which the greater number are 

 limited to peculiar regions of the torrid Zone. If we look 

 to the geological history of this large and beautiful family, 

 we shall find that although it was called into existence, to- 

 gether with the most early vegetable forms of the Transi- 

 tion period, it presents very few species in the Coal forma- 

 tion (See Lindley's Foss. Flora, No. XV, PI. 142, P. 163,) 

 and occurs sparingly in the Secondary series ;t but in the 

 Tertiary formation we have abundant stems and leaves, and 

 fruits, derived from Palms.J 



Fossil Trunks of Palm Trees. 



The fossil stems of Palms are referable to many species ; 

 they occur beautifully silicified in the Tertiary deposites of 

 Hungary, and in the Calcaire Grossier of Paris.§ Trunks 



In Oct. 1835, I saw in the Museum at Leyden, a living Salamander three 

 feet long, the first ever brought alive to Europe, of a species nearly allied to 

 the fossil Salamander of CEningen. This animal was brought by Dr. Siebold 

 from a lake within the crater of an extinct volcano, on a high mountain 

 in Japan. It fed greedily on small fishes, and frequently cast its epider- 

 mis. 



*SeePl. l,Figs,66, 67. 68. 



■j- See Sprengel's Account of Endogenites Palmacites in New red sand- 

 stone, near Chemnitz, (Halle, 1 828.) and Cotta's Dendrolithen, (Dresden and 

 Leipsig, 1832. PI. ix, x.) 



t Eight species in the family of Palms are given in Ad. Brongniart's list 

 of the fossils of the Tertiary Series. 



^ Our figure PI. 64, Fig. 2, represents the summit of a beautiful fossil 

 Trunk in the Museum at Paris, allied to the family of Palms, and rearly 

 four feet in circumference, from the lower region of the Calcaire Grossier 

 at Vaillet near Soissons. M. Brongniart has applied to this fossil the 



