46 PREHISTORIC E UR OPE. 



researches of Count Saporta, 1 who, along with M. Tournouer, 

 has recently given an interesting account of the fossiliferous 

 travertine near Moret 2 (Seine-et-Marne). Another most im- 

 portant tufa is that of Canstadt in Wiirtemberg, the shells of 

 which have been studied by Klein, 3 and the plants by Professor 

 Heer. 4 



The travertines of Massa Marittima in Tuscany have yielded 

 a number of plant-remains, amongst which we find indigenous 

 species commingled with forms, some of which, although still 

 European, are not now natives of Tuscany, while others are 

 exotic, and yet others are extinct. Amongst these last are 

 several well-known Tertiary species, such as Liqiiidamhar euro- 

 pium, Al. Br., Platanns aceroides, Al. Br., Planera Ungeri, and 

 Betula prism, and some peculiar forms, as an arbor vitte (Thuja 

 saviana, Gaud.), allied to the living T. occidentalis, and a walnut 

 (Juglcms pavicefolia, Gaud.) One of the most noteworthy 

 plants is the laurel of the Canary Islands (Laurus canariensis, 

 Webb), a variety of the common laurel (Laurus nohilis). It does 

 not now grow spontaneously in Italy, and until recently was 

 believed to be an extra-European species. But Saporta describes 

 it as growing wild on the banks of the Gapeau, near Toulon, 

 on the French shores of the Mediterranean, where the orange is 

 cultivated in the open air. Professor Marion has seen it in 

 the gorges of Chiffa, near Blidah in Algeria, but its head-quar- 

 ters are the Canary Islands, where it is found flourishing luxu- 

 riantly in the woody regions with a northern exposure, between 

 a height of 1600 feet and 4800 feet above the sea — regions which 

 are nearly always enveloped in steaming vapours, and exposed 

 to the heavy rains of winter. Snow, which falls now and then 

 in an extra rigorous season, melts even at the upper limits of the 



1 Compt. Rend, de la 33 e Session du Congres Scientifique de France ; Bull. Soc. 

 Bot. France, t. xiv. p. 179 ; Annuaire de VInst. des Provinces, t. xx. p. 9. 



2 Saporta: Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 3 e Ser., t. ii. p. 439 ; Compt. Bend, du 

 Congres Internat. d'Anthrop. et Archeol. PreTi., 1874, p. 80; Compt. Rend. Assoc. 

 Franc, pour VAvance. des Sci. 1876, p. 640 ■ Tournouer : Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 

 3" Ser., t. ii. p. 443 ; t. v. p. 646. 



3 Jahreshefte des Vereinsfilr vaterl. Naturk. in Wiirttemberg, Bd. ii. p. 60. 



4 Die Urwett der Schweiz, 2te Aufl., p. 534. 



