19^ 



THE CHAIN OF LIFE. 



of the character of those of more southern climates were 

 dominant in Europe (Fig. 163). ^he well-known beds of 

 Bournemouth, in the south of England,* contam a rich flora 

 of the Eocene age, perhaps of its middle period, and remmdmg 

 us of the forests of sub-tropical India or Australia. 

 ' Gradual elevation of th'i land favoured for a time the 

 extension of these plants, and the warmth of the chmate 



F,G. i63.-Flower and Leaf of Bombax .epultijlorum. Eocene of Aix.-After Sapcr.a 



A European representative of the Silk-cotton-tree of the East Indies and 

 * Tropical America. 



allowed them to extend even into Arctic latitudes. But at 

 the close of tie Eocene another subsidence occurred, which 

 exterminated much of the Eocene flora, and was perhaps 

 accompanied with a reduction of temperature, m which the 

 more northern lands became covered with great forests of 

 trees allied to the Pines. In the Miocene period the land 

 1 Described by La Harpe and Gaudin, and recently by Gardner. 





