66 PREHISTORIC E UR OPE. 



Europe in one season, we should yet be compelled to admit that 

 no such theory of migrations can account for the presence of two 

 widely-divergent floras and molluscous faunas in the Pleistocene 

 deposits of Middle Europe ; they, at least, could not have in- 

 dulged in such feats of travel. The flora and fauna of La Celle 

 introduce us to conditions of climate such as are only par- 

 tially reproduced now along the borders of Western France, 

 where, in the same and even higher latitudes, thanks to the 

 genial influence of the ocean, many southern species of plants 

 are successfully cultivated. Thus we meet with the fig-tree of 

 Brittany, the evergreen oak of Noirmoutier and of Quimper, and 

 the arbutus of Vendue. Along the whole coast of Brittany, even 

 as far as Brest, not only the fig-tree and the laurel, but the 

 myrtle, grow in the open air, attain a good size, and ripen their 

 fruits. The presence of the delicate Canary laurel at La Celle, 

 however, shows that in Northern France the winter season of the 

 genial period during which that laurel flourished must have been 

 as clement as that of Var in the extreme south. Count Saporta 

 has described a picturesque scene which met his view near 

 Montmeilan (Var), where the Fontaine-l'Eveque tumbles into 

 the Verdon. The conditions, he says, vividly recalled those 

 which must at one time have obtained at La Celle. Wild 

 fig-trees of small stature overhung the water, which threw itself 

 down a rock decked with a rich vegetation. The leaves of this 

 tree exactly resembled those of La Celle, and the figs which still 

 remained on the wood of the preceding year were of small size, 

 and dropped away at the least touch into the water. The group 

 of plants around the waterfall closely approached to the flora of 

 La Celle. Besides the fig-tree, Saporta noted common hazel, 

 gray willow, elder-tree, ivy, clematis, box, and spindle-tree. The 

 common ash and the sycamore, however, were both wanting, for 

 neither occurs in that part of Provence at so low an elevation. 

 The laurel (Lau-rus canariensis) was also absent, its northern limit 

 as an indigenous plant stopping much farther to the south. The 

 genial climate which nourished the flora of La Celle extended, 

 as we have seen, east into Germany, nor can there be any doubt 



