Oil the Ancient Plant- World. 271 



with " the Molasse," which extended from Marseilles north-eastward 

 by Lyons, the Jura, north of the Swiss Alps, to Bavaria, and 

 occupied the whole of the valley of the Danube, the western shores 

 of the Adriatic, Illyria, Thrace, and the S.W. of Greece, to which 

 Prof. Heer has given the name Pennino-carnienne. The marine 

 deposits at Carry, near Marseilles, being somewhat older than the 

 inland Molasse beds, serve to show the gradual invasion of the 

 Aquitanian land by the " Molasse Sea " took place from south to 

 north. During this period the steps by which the temperate zone 

 was becoming colder, though continuous, were softened by the heavy 

 rains of summer and the mildness of winter, which still allowed 

 a rich and varied vegetation. At no later period of the world's 

 history did it contain so many species of Poplar, all sections of 

 the group being represented in France, including many types driven 

 southward by the cold, and only now found in North Africa and 

 Southern Asia, as the variable-leaved Poplar, Popidus Eupliratica, 

 which is the modern representative of P. mutahilis of CEuingen ; 

 the former the author considers to be the plant referred to in the 

 Psalm of Jeremiah, commencing, " By the rivers of Babylon," 

 translated Willows, the Weeping Willows introduced from China 

 being unknown in Hebrew times. 



Bemarking on the fact that for representatives of the Miocene 

 flora we have often to turn to America, a successive immigration 

 from the Pole southwards in all directions is suggested as the expla- 

 nation of these ancient geographical connections. Amongst the 

 Ferns (Adiantum and Pteris), we have several ancestors of existing 

 Ferns. A Salisburia near to S. adiantifolia of Japan, Sequoia, 

 Taxodium, and Ghjptosirobus, occur among the Conifers. Comptonias 

 in rich and elegant variety, now only represented by one form in the 

 sandy marshes of Pennsylvania. The Green Oaks of CEningen re- 

 produce the aspect of Mexico and Louisiana. Through the long 

 summers of equal heat and mild winters, the genera Zaurvs, Per sea, 

 Benzoni, Oreodaphne, Cinnamomum, and Camphor a, still lived in the 

 centre of Europe, but in this epoch reached their final limit in this 

 area. Again new types commenced to appear from the north, such 

 as the Limes. An Aralia {Panax circularis, Hr.) still lived at 

 CEningen, a Magnolia (M. Ludioigi, Ett.) at Salzhausen. 



The author draws a striking picture of the number and variety of 

 the vegetable forms, and the richness and elegance of the forests of 

 the Molasse epoch, the locality of CEningen, near Schaffhausen, alone, 

 having yielded to M. Heer no less than 475 species of plants, besides 

 numerous Pachyderms, Birds, Beptiles, Fish, Mollusca, Crustacea, and 

 Spiders, and 800 species of Insects. He considers that the climate 

 must have resembled that of Madeira, Malaga, the South of Sicily 

 and Japan, and Georgia, or indicates a mean temperature of 18° to 

 19° Cent. Broken branches and crushed leaves and flowers testify to 

 violent storms and heavy rains ; but the character of the vegetation 

 shows that flowers and fruits persisted throughout the whole year. 

 In these primeval forests lived the great Salamander (Andrias 

 Scheuchzeri, Holl.), of which the living type is found in Japan (J3. 



