HEER, FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE UPPER RHONE. 65 
sandstone covers the upper-marl beds and crops-out on the surface. 
All these strata have a rather considerable inclination and dip towards 
the south-west. 
Heer has collected fifty-eight species of plants, mostly leaves, but 
also fruit, and even a few flowers. The leaves and fruits are remark- 
able for their very beautiful state of preservation, since not only the 
form of the margin of the leaf, but even the finest veins are preserved. 
These plants belong to twenty-one families and thirty-three genera. 
As deserving particular notice may be mentioned some remarkably 
fine ferns (Aspidium, Polypodium, Pteris), of which one seems to be 
nearly allied to the Pteris stenophylla, a native of the warmer parts 
of America, whilst the others approach to those now living in Europe ; 
further, three species of cypress, one of which, a Callitris (C. antiqua, 
Heer), was one of the most common trees in the woods, and two 
Taxodiz, which seem to be identical with the Giningen species (7. 
Cningense, A. Braun, and 7. distichum fossile) ; three species of 
oak, of which two resembled the evergreen oaks of southern Europe ; 
eleven willows, one of them (Salix macrophylla, Heer) distinguished 
for its uncommonly large leaves; six species of maple, and among 
them Acer productum, A. cuspidatum, and A. trilobatum, Al. Braun; 
a nut-tree, both leaf and fruit ; the Liquidambar, Diospyros, Vacci- 
nium, Betula, Rhus, Crateegus, and others. Twenty-four of the genera 
are still found in our present flora, whereas the remainder belong to 
more southern zones, as the cypresses, the storax-tree, the ebony, 
rhus, and others. 
On examining the mode of occurrence of these fossil plants in the 
marls, a certain regularity in their distribution may be observed, 
showing that the plants grew in this place, and were not drifted to it 
from other quarters. Thus in one place the long leaves of a Typha 
abound, and here undoubtedly was a marsh or a mossy forest-stream ; 
this is confirmed by the circumstance that whole stones are found full 
of leaves of the Carex, between which occur freshwater shells (Pla- 
norbis and Cyclas), occasionally also the leaves and fruit of the maple, 
which without doubt had fallen into this brook or marshy lake ; in 
other localities the cypresses, and in others the deciduous-leaved trees 
preponderate. The Taxodiz, however, and the many willows show 
that the forest stood in a marshy, moory tract. 
This fossil flora has most resemblance to that of Giningen. In 
both localities a great number of willows and maples flourished, partly 
it would appear even the same species; i both among the conifer 
(Nadelhilzer) the cypress-like species predominated. On the other 
hand, poplars so common in Cningen are wanting in the Upper 
Rhone, and in their place is frequently found a tree like a lime-tree, 
which however has not yet been rightly determmed. Ciningen be- 
longs to the upper freshwater molasse-formation, and consequently no 
great change in the character of the flora has taken place during the 
molasse-period, if the coal of the Upper Rhone actually belongs to 
the lower freshwater molasse, as A. Escher von der Linth concludes 
from the dip of the beds. 
Unfortunately no comparison can be instituted with the coal of 
