452 Mr. Horner on the Geology of the Environs of Bonn. 



" Amonc them are, however, three species, the existence of which is sufficient to determine with 

 " certainty the relative age of the formation ; and, with great probabih'ty, the nature of the climate 

 "of the North of Germany at the time of their deposit. 



" Messrs. Murchison and Lyell found in the tertiary formation of Aix in Provence, remains of a 

 •' Cinnamon, and of a kind of coniferous plant called Podocarpus, figures of which are given in the 

 " Edinburgli New Philosophical Journal for 1829, p. 298. Both of these occur in the present col- 

 " lection, and along with them distinct traces of the leaf of some kind of Palm, which was also met 

 " with in the deposit at Aix. 



" The Cinnamon I formerly thought identical with C. duke, a species now inhabiting China, and 

 " there is nothing in the impressions from Bonn to render it necessary to modify that opinion. At 

 " the same time it must be confessed that this identification may be erroneous, and that better 

 " specimens may prove it to be even a species of Tetradenia or Camphora. 



" The Podocarpus was referred, with some doubt, to P. macrophylla ; and if not actually that 

 " species, or P. coriaceus, a West Indian species, may at least be considered as certainly belonging 

 " to the genus. 



" Of the Palm very imperfect fragments only remain. They consist of strap-shaped impressions, 

 " truncated at each end, with some of the parallel veins slightly thicker than the others, at rather 

 " unequal intervals, and also with traces of parallel ribs ; the lateral veins diverge from the ribs at 

 " an angle of about 40°, and are remarkably well preserved. 



" Imperfect as are these data, they seem at first sight to lead to the conclusion that the climate of 

 " Bonn was tropical at the time of tliis deposit, because the Cinnamon is characteristic of the Flora 

 " of the Indian Archipelago ; Podocarpus is found in the West Indies and at Sincapore, while the 

 " Palm might reasonably be considered in its natural station in such situations. 



" But It may also be supposed, from the same evidence, that the climate of Bonn approximated 

 " to that of the northern provinces of China, and the valleys of Nipal ; for Cinnamomum dulce, to 

 " which the cinnamon-like leaf may have belonged, is, as has already been stated, Chinese ; while 

 " the genera Tetradenia and Camphora range as far to the north as the mountains of Nipal, and 

 " even Japan: and Cinnamomum itself finds its most northern limit only in the upper mountains of 

 " Nipal, near the river Cosa. Podocarpus macrophylla itself has certainly been found in^Nipal, 

 " and probably near Nagasaki ; and although it is impracticable to determine positively from 

 " such materials as we have here preserved, to what species of palm the impressions belonged, yet 

 " there is nothing in them at variance with the leaves of the modem Chamaerops, one species of 

 " which, the Chamcerops Palmetto, now inhabits the South of Italy and Barbary, and another the 

 " valleys of Nipal. 



" It may, therefore, be safely concluded that the climate of Bonn, at the period of the brown coal 

 " deposit, ranged between that of the Indian Archipelago and Nipal*." 



b. Remains of Fishes. 



Professor Broun f, in a paper on the fossil remains of fish, found in the papierkohle of this 



district, states that he examined some hundred specimens, and that, with the exception of one, of 



which the remains were very indistinct, all belonged to one species. They are usually from two 



to three inches long, rarely exceed three quarters of an inch in depth, and the head forms a fourth 



* See Appendix VI. p, 474. 



t Ueber die fossilen Reste der Papierkohle vom Geistenger Busck im Siebengebirge, in Leon- 

 hard's Zeitschrijt fur Mineralogie, 1828. 



