44 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



CHAPTER IV. 



CLIMATE OF PLEISTOCENE PERIOD, continued TESTIMONY OF 



PLANTS AND MOLLUSCS. 



Preservation of land-plants exceptional — Plants in the Travertine of Massa Marit- 

 tima in Tuscany — Plants in tufas of Provence ; in tufas of Montpellier, etc. ; 

 in tufa of La Celle near Paris — Views of Count Saporta — Plants in tufa of 

 Canstadt — Pleistocene lignite of Jarville near Nancy ; its plant and insect 

 remains— Mr. Nathorst on Arctic flora in peat of Switzerland, Germany, etc. ; 

 M. Tournouer on shells in tufa of La Celle — M. Bourguignat on shells in 

 "diluvium gris" of Paris— Shells in tufas of Canstadt ; in English Pleisto- 

 cene deposits — Dr. Sandberger on shells and mammalian remains in loss of 

 Wiirzburg — M. Locard on shells in Corsican breccias — Summary of evidence. 



The conclusions to which we have been led by a study of the 

 mammalian groups characteristic of the Pleistocene Period are 

 strongly supported by the evidence derived from an examina- 

 tion of those plants and shells wbich from time to time have 

 been discovered in freshwater accumulations belonging to the 

 same age. Just as we found among the mammalia well-marked 

 northern and southern species, together with many temperate 

 forms, so we encounter amongst the groups of plants, and land- 

 and freshwater -shells which we are about to examine, many 

 species which could not possibly have lived side by side. Thus 

 in Central Europe the Pleistocene deposits have in some places 

 yielded arctic and northern plants, whilst in other places the flora 

 they contain has a temperate or even a preponderating southern 

 facies. And the same holds true of the mollusca. Let us 

 glance for a little at some of the more interesting " finds " of 

 land-plants, taking first in order those which appear to indicate 

 mild and genial climatic conditions. 



It is generally only under exceptional circumstances that 



