3 48 PREHISTORIC E UR OPE. 



epoch was attained, a climate approximating to that of Pliocene 

 times characterised our continent. More humid than the pre- 

 sent, it was at the same time much more equable. Severe 

 winters in our latitude were probably unknown. A dense forest- 

 vegetation covered all the low grounds, and doubtless invaded 

 the valleys and hill-slopes of mountain-regions. Plants which 

 cannot now co-exist in one and the same locality were then 

 widely diffused over vast regions. From Central Italy up to 

 Switzerland and Wiirtemberg, and from the shores of the Gulf 

 of Lyons as far north as Paris, an uniform flora prevailed. The 

 Canary laurel nourished at once on the banks of the Seine and 

 the borders of the Mediterranean. In the neighbourhood of 



O 



Paris it was associated in one and the same place with the fig- 

 tree, the judas-tree, the sycamore, and the ash. In the extreme 

 south of France it grew side by side with pines which have 

 now retreated to the mountains. The conditions were the same 

 in Italy. There laurels, magnolias, walnuts, fig-tree, judas-tree, 

 beech, evergreen oak, laurustinus, manna-ash, and many others, 

 were commingled— all testifying to the humidity and extreme 

 equableness of the climate. Of the contemporaneous flora of 

 England and the north we know but little — only a very few 

 traces of it have been met with. In Scotland, oaks, pines, alder, 

 birch, and ash were among the trees, from which it may be 

 inferred that the climate of our regions was not less genial then 

 than it is to-day. We can hardly suppose it possible, however, 

 that the delightful climatic conditions which obtained from the 

 Mediterranean region up to Central Europe did not also extend 

 to our own latitudes. Our winters must at that time have been 

 very much milder, although doubtless our more northerly posi- 

 tion would tell upon our flora, and cause it to differ as much 

 from that of Middle Europe as the latter did then from the 

 flora of Southern France and Tuscany. 



The British Islands were united to themselves and the Con- 

 tinent and one or more broad rivers, carrying the tribute of 

 the Elbe, the Weser, and the Ehine, the Thames and other 

 streams of East Britain, flowed down through the vast plains 



