FOSSIL LEAFS OF PALM TREES. 387 



of Palms are also found in the Fresh-water formation of 

 Mont Martre.*— It is stated, that at Liblar, near Cologne, 

 they have been seen in a vertical position.f Beautifully 

 silicified stems of Palm Trees abound in Antigua, and in 

 India, and on the banks of the Iraw^adi, in the kingdom of 

 Ava. 



It is not surprising to find the remains of Palms in warm 

 latitudes where plants of this family are now indigenous, as 

 in Antigua or India ; but their occurrence in the Tertiary 

 formations of Europe, associated with the remains of Croco- 

 diles and Tortoises, and with marine shells, nearly allied to 

 forms which are at present found in seas of a warm tempe- 

 rature, seems to indicate that the climate of Europe during 

 the Tertiary period, was warmer than it is at present. 



Fossil Palm leaves. 



We have seven known localities of fossil Palm leaves, in 

 the Tertiary strata of France, Switzerland, and the Tyrol; 

 and among them at least three species, of flabelliform leaves, 

 all diflfering not only from that of the Chemaerops humilis, 

 the only native palm of the South of Europe, but also from 



name o? Endogenites echinutus. The projecting bodies that surround it, like 

 the foliage of a Corinthian Capital, are the persistent portions of fallen 

 Petioles which remain adhering to the stem after the leaves themselves have 

 fallen off. They have a dilated base embracing one-fourth or one third of 

 the stem; the form of these bases, and the disposition of their woody tissue 

 in fasciculi or fibres, refer this fossil to some arborescent Monocotyledonous 

 Tree allied to the Palms. 



* Prostrate trunks of Palm trees of considerable size are found in the 

 argillaceous marl beds above the Gypsum strata of the Paris basin, together 

 with shells of Lymnea and Planorbis ; as these Trunks occur here in fresh- 

 water deposites they cannot have been drifted by marine current from dis- 

 tant regions, but were probably natives of Europe, and of France. 



+ It is not shown whether these Palm trees were drifted in this position, 

 or are still standing in the spot whereon they grew like the Cycadites and 

 Coniferse in the Isle of Portland, 



