268 Notices of Memoirs — Count cle Saporta — 



and resting on the Trias. Of similar age are the freshwater bands, 

 with plants, of the Quadersandstein of Bohemia ; they occur also in 

 Moravia, the Hartz, and some localities in Saxony, Westphalia, 

 Scania, and the neighbourhood of Aix-la-Chapelle and Toulon, and 

 in Disco and Noursoak in West Greenland. 



The most southern locality is that of Beausset, near Toulon, 

 including Magnolia telonensis, Sap., Lomatopteris superstes, Sap., 

 Araucaria Poucasi, Sap. ; but other Dicotyledonous genera are rare, 

 and are numerically stronger in the G-erman localities, between 49° 

 and 51° N. lat., which present a mixture of tropical and boreal 

 forms, the genus Gredneria being an example of the first, Hymenea of 

 the second (one of the latter group, Ceratonia siliqua, still lives on 

 at Mentone). In the Dakota group, the Crednerias are represented 

 by Protophyttum multinervce, Lqx., and Aspidiophyllum. M. Lesquereux 

 has also recognized Oaks, Ivy, Beech, Planes, and Chestnuts. The 

 flora of the Middle Chalk (Cenomanian) marks the commencement 

 of the fourth and last vegetable era the author recognizes, specialized 

 by the appearance of Dicotyledons. 



This group increases in importance in the succeeding Tertiary 

 epoch. The Monocotyledons, which had gradually been decreasing 

 in number and importance, also become somewhat more salient again, 

 as conditions more favourable to vegetable life come in. Europe 

 had still no winter, and though already to a certain extent con- 

 tinental, the Alps and Pyrennes were only represented by insignifi- 

 cant islets ; lakes were scattered over much of the surface, and plants 

 were imbedded in volcanic ashes. 



In the Palaeocene (Saporta, Suessonien d'Orbigny) the flora is little 

 changed. It extends from theN.E. of Paris into Hainault and Liege; 

 in the latter province it has yielded a rich flora at Gelinden, con- 

 taining Laurels, Cinnamons, Oaks, Vines, and a species of Thuites, near 

 to those of Japan, the flora of which resembles the facies to a cer- 

 tain extent. The European Palaeocene flora has some affinities with 

 the American lignitic flora, and also with the Greenland Tertiaries, 

 especially that of Atanekerdluk. 



The Eocene period was characterized by the existence of the Num- 

 mulitic sea, a larger Mediterranean extending from Asia Minor and 

 Arabia to Western Europe, and from Africa to a Gulf including the 

 London, Paris, and Belgian basins ; it is present in Persia, India, 

 and China, and forms the summit of the Alps, forming one of the 

 vastest inland seas of geological history, tenanted by similar bio- 

 logical forms. 



Washed up on the shores of the Brito-Belgian gulf were seeds of 

 a Nipa, of an Indian type, near to that now flourishing on the banks 

 of the Ganges. Near Paris, on the site of the 1867 Exhibition, 

 at the Trocadero, occurred Palms, Pines, Thujas, and a Dryandra 

 (Michelotti) , a type now characteristic of the Australian flora. A 

 similar flora occurs in the collection formed by MM. Aymard and 

 Vinay, at Puy, in Velay, including the now African genus Phoenix 

 (P. Aymardi) allied to the modern Date. To this age belong the 

 sandstones of Beauchamp, the limestones of St. Ouen, the gypsum 



