Bovey Tracey. 261 



the base of the granite hills of Dartmoor on one side, 

 and the slopes of Greensand on the other. Of this 

 there can be little doubt, that the fine clays, often 

 light-coloured, which form so much of the series, were 

 derived from the disintegration of the felspar of the 

 granite of Dartmoor, and the sands, where pure, were 

 probably partly made from the quartz of that granite, 

 and partly from the waste of the neighbouring Upper 

 Grreensand hills, then no doubt more extensive and 

 higher than now. 



The climate of the period is unmistakably indi- 

 cated by the plants, of which fifty species have been 

 described by Heer, from these Lower Miocene beds. 

 Some of these are ferns, including Lastrcea stiriaca, and 

 L. Bunburii, Pecopteris lignitum and P. Hookeri, and 

 of the Order Conifers we have the branches, fruits, and 

 seeds of the lofty Sequoia Couttsice, a genus that 

 abounded in the Miocene epoch, and probably formed 

 the most common tree in the woods that surrounded 

 this lake. The nearest living analogue of this tree is 

 the Sequoia gigantea of California, the Wellingtonia 

 of our parks and gardens. Various grasses have been 

 found, and fragments of a Palm-tree, Palmacites Dce- 

 monorops, probably resembling the living Rotang- 

 palm, and leaves of Oaks, Quercus Lyellii, of which, 

 says Heer, ' similar species are still living in Mexico.' 

 Three species of Figs and two of Grapes have been de- 

 scribed, together with Laurels, Cinnamons, Birches, 

 Willows, Waterlilies, &c., all of extinct species accord- 

 ing to Heer, and eleven of which are common to the 

 Miocene flora of Switzerland, both ' manifesting a sub- 

 tropical climate.' 



' If,' says Professor Heer, ' from the relics of the 

 Bovey plants, we attempt to represent the vegetation of 



