﻿Reviews — Heer^s Primceval World of Switzerland. 



87 



Brown-coal of Bonn and in the Miocene Lignites of Bovey Tracey, 

 and its ancestry has been traced back as far as the Cretaceous Period. 

 At least twelve species of Palms have been met with in Swiss 

 Miocene deposits. 



Fig. 10. Palms, etc. of Switzerland, restored from their leaves. 1. Sabal major, 

 Ung. sp. 2. Phenicites spectabilis, Ung. 3. Flabellaria Ruminiana, Heer. 4. 

 Maiiiearirtformosa,Jleev, 5. Lastrcea s<m«ca, Ung. sp. 6. Phragmites CEningensis, 

 A. Br. 7. Cyperus vettistus, Heer. (Fig. 164, p. 335, Heer.) 



Bearing in mind that only a single species of palm, the dwarf 

 Fan-palm, Chamcerops humilis, Linn., is now found in Europe, we 

 may conclude that a more warm and equable climate was enjoyed 

 over all this region of the earth. 



" This higher temperature of the Swiss Miocene land may be in 

 part explained by the form of Europe at that time. A different 

 distribution of land and water is seen in the map of Central Europe 

 at this period (see Fig. 5). The eastern sea, which extended into 

 Switzerland, must have exerted a warming influence, as it was 

 connected with the Indian Ocean through the Eed Sea, and perhaps 

 also through the Persian GnlL From this tropical sea, a current of 

 warm water, like the existing Grulf-stream in the Atlantic, flowed 

 towards the northern seas, exerting a powerful influence upon the 

 temperature of the surrounding lands by means of the broad arms of 

 the sea, which penetrated into^the heart of Europe." (vol. ii. p. 263.) 



