LESQUEEEux.] PALEONTOLOGY LIGNITIC FLOEA AGE. 375 



and four otlier species, Laurus Foi'desU, Daplinogene anglica, Quercus 

 Burmensis, and Juglans LaharpU, are related to .Miocene species in 

 the same degree. From this, it seems, the conclusion should be in 

 favor of a more intimate relation of the flora of Alumbay, which is posi- 

 tively recognized of Eocene age, with that of the European Miocene than 

 with that of Mount Bolca ; for it has only sis species identical or in 

 relation with the Mount Bolca flora, while it has eight, bearing the same 

 degree of relation to the Miocene. Some of the species of the jS"orth 

 American Lignitic are identical with or closely related to those named 

 by Heer. Quercus furcinervis is probably identical with Q. Burmensis ; for, 

 in many of the numerous American specimens of this species, the absence 

 of an upper branch of the lateral veins, which, according to Heer, is- 

 the essential character which separates these two species, is positively 

 remarked. Daplmogene anglica, is as positively identified as it can be from 

 the short description given by Heer, it being different from I), melasto- 

 macea by the symmetrical form of the leaves and the branching of the 

 lateral nerves. Heer says that the middle nerve is also branching. In 

 our specimens it is simple; in Unger's species neither the lateral nor 

 the middle vein branches. Though these species re-appear in some forms 

 of the Miocene of Europe, they should be considered, I think, rather as 

 Eocene than as Miocene types. 



The Mount Bolca flora is represented by a large number of specimens 

 of leaves and fruits disseminated in the numerous museums of Italy. 

 Until now few of the species which they represent liave been satisfac- 

 torily described. The little which is known of this flora is from the 

 table of families furnished to Professor Heer by Professor Massalongo, 

 and published with remarks in Fl. Tert. Helv., (vol. iii, p. 275.) This 

 table has 53 groups of plants, among which the more numerously repre- 

 sented are: JL/^fe, 48 species; Podocapece,5; Falms,7; Froteaceoe,5', Erica.- 

 cecc, 10; BtercuUw, 10; Buttneriacece, 14; Myrtacew, S,&c. ; and among the 

 species the most abundant, Eitcalyptusltalica, MasfS. ; Eugenia laurifolia, 

 Mass. ; Guayacites Heerii, Mass. ; Zanthoxylum amhiguum, TJ. ; Ficus Bol- 

 censis, Mass., which Heer says is similar to F. multinervis of the Miocene ; 

 Santalum memecyloicles, Mass. ; Aralia primigena, de la H. ; in all ten 

 species not described but briefly remarked upon by Heer. From the 

 characters of the Mount Bolca flora as indicated in this exposition of 

 Heer, it does not appear, indeed, that our Lower Lignitic flora has any 

 marked relation to it ; but the scantiness of materials, together with 

 the uncertainty of the characters of a number of species named by 

 Massalongo, renders a comparison impossible. Heer himself, in his ex- 

 position, remarks on this insufiiciency of reliable characters. He, for 

 example, counts only four species of Mount Bolca as represented in the 

 Miocene of Europe, and a few more as closely related to Miocene species. 

 He mentions among those ascending to the Molass of Switzerland, 

 Banlcsia longifolia and Bryandra Veronensis, two species which have 

 close relation with species of our Upper Miocene, the Green Eiver group, 

 rather than with species of the Lower Lignitic. Since Heer's short review 

 of thie Mount Bolca flora was published, in 1859, paleontology has not 

 received any more precise information in regard to its characters. 

 Schimper, in his Vegetable Paleontology, 1873, mentions only from this 

 locality, besides 21 species of marine plants or fucoids, Gyperites Bol- 

 censis, Mass., considered or described formerly by the same author as a 

 Flahellaria; Ealochloris cymodoceoides, Uug., also found at Soltzka ; Fota- 

 mogeton tritonis, U., and P. nayadum^ U. ; Typlia spadcc, Mass., a species 

 which Schimper supposes to be made from the leaves of some Gypcracew; 

 five forms of GafdalUnce, fruits comparable to the Nepadites of the Lon- 

 don clay, representing probably a single species ; Latanites parvulus^ 



