418 



INSULAR FLORAS AND FAUNAS WITH 



[Ch. XLI. 



A botanist^ wliollj ignorant of the plants which lived on 

 the continent of Europe in Miocene times when the first 

 volcanos were beginning their eruptions in the Canaries, 

 Madeiras^ and Azores, would be in no small degree perplexed 

 at the presence in these archipelagos of such Atlantic types 

 as Clethra and Persea, of which living representatives exist 

 in no part of the world nearer than the continent of North 

 America, It would seem to be a violation of the general 

 law according to wliich the organic productions of islands 

 bear most resemblance to those of the nearest continent. 

 But fortunately the labours of Unger, Heer, and Goppert 

 on the fossil botany of the tertiary strata have shown us 

 that Europe, when the Atlantic volcanos first reared their 



ests above the waves, was covered with an exceedingly rich 



CI 



vegetation. 



No 



(Eningh 



Switzerland.* 



most 



number 



America 



; whereas those having European 

 affinities only hold the second rank, those of Asia the third, 

 of Africa the fourth, and those of Austraha the fifth. Among 



forms 



alluded to, 

 Azores. B 



common 



Madeira 

 Miocene 



such forms as we should naturally expect to have come from 

 the adjoining Miocene continent. Another plant of a sin-. 

 gularly aberrant form, and which we may well imagine to be 

 the last survivor of a Miocene type, is the Monida edulis, 

 belonging to a genus which has now no representative else- 

 where in the world. This conspicuous shrub is an umbellife- 



rous plant with a stem like an mverted eiepnani 

 crowned with a huge tuft of parsley -like foliage. 

 specimen of it may now (1867) be 



A fine 



.nical Garden at Kew. It is peculiar to one 

 of tlie rocky islands of the Dezertas,t where it probably owes 

 its preservation to the exceptional conditions wliich it has there 



^ For a brief sketch of the Miocene 6th ed. chap. xv. 



flora and fauna, see ' Lyell's Elements,' 



t See Map, fig. 137, p. i^o. 



/ 



