INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxi 



In the brown coal of the Eocene and Miocene periods, Fan-palms, Conifers, and various existing 

 genera of Myricece, Laurinece, and Platanece are believed to have been identified. Wesel and Weber 

 describe from the brown coal of the Rhine a rich and varied Flora, representing numerous families 

 never now seen associated, and including some of the peculiar and characteristic genera of the Aus- 

 tralian, South African, American, Indian, and European Floras.* 



In the Mollasse and certain Miocene formations at (Eningen and elsewhere in Germany, Switzer- 

 land, and Tuscany,t 900 species of Dicotyledons % have been observed, all apparently different from 

 existing ones, They have been referred, with more or less probability, to Fan-palms, Poplars (three 

 species), evergreen Laurinece, Ceratonia, Acacia, Tamarindus, Banksia, Embot/trium, Grevillea, 

 Cupressus, several species of Juglans (one near the North- American /. acuminata, another near the 

 common Walnut of Europe and Asia, J. nigra, and a third near the North-American /. cinerea) ; 

 also a Hickory, near the Carya alba (a genus now wholly American), and a Pterocarya closely 

 allied to P. Caucasica. 



The rise of the Alps was subsequent to this period ; and in the European deposits immediately 

 succeeding that event, in Switzerland (at Durnten and Utznach) are found evidences of the follow- 

 ing existing species,— Spruce, Larch, Scotch Fir, Birch, a Hazel (different from that now existing), 

 Scirpus lacustris, Phragmites communis, and Menyanthes trifoliata. 



The glacial epoch followed, during and since which there has probably been little generic change 

 in the vegetation of the globe. 



32. So much for the main facts hitherto regarded as established in Vegetable Palaeontology ; 

 they are of little value as compared with those afforded by the Animal Kingdom, even granting that 

 they are all well made out, which is by no means the case. In applying them theoretically to the 

 solution of the question of creation and distribution, the first point which strikes us is the impossi- 

 bility of establishing a parallel between the successive appearances of vegetable forms in time, and 

 their complexity of structure or specialization of organs, as represented by the successively higher 



groups in the Natural method of classification. Secondly, that the earliest recognizable Ciyptogams 

 * - 



* See Quart. Joum. Geol. Soe. xv. raise. 3, where an abstract is given, with some excellent cautions, by C. J. 

 F. Bunbury, Esq. The Australian genera include Eucalyptus, Casuarina, Leptomeria, Templetonia, Banksia, Dry- 

 andra, and Hakea. I am not prepared to assert that these identifications, or the Australian ones of the Mollasse, 

 are all so unsatisfactory that the evidence of Australian types in the brown coal and Mollasse should be altogether 

 set aside ; but I do consider that not one of the above-named genera is identified at all satisfactorily, and that rnany 

 of them are not even problematically decided. 



f During the printing of this sheet I have received from my friend M. De Candolle a very interesting memoir 

 on the tertiary fossil plants of Tuscany, by M. C. Gaudin and the Marquis C. Strozzi, in which some of the genera 

 here alluded to are described. The age of these Tuscan beds is referred by Prof. O. Heer to a period intermediate 

 between those of Utznach and (Eningen. The most important plants described are, Coniferae, 6 sp. ; Salix, 2 ; 

 Liquidambar, 1 ; Alnus, 1 ; Carpinus, 1 ; Populus, 2 ; Fagus, 1 ; Quercus, 5 ; Ulmus, 2 ; Planera, 1 ; Ficus, 1 ; 

 Platanus, 1; Oreodaphne, 1; Laurus, 2; Persea, 1; Acer, 2; Vitis, 1; Juglans, 4; Carya, 1; Pterocarya, 1. 

 There are 49 extinct species in all, of which 46 are referred, without even a mark of doubt or caution, to existing 

 genera, and this in almost all cases from imperfect leaves alone ! Without questioning the good faith or ability of 

 the authors of this really valuable and interesting memoir, 1 cannot withhold my protest against this practice of 

 making what are at best little better than surmises, appear under the guise of scientifically established identifica- 

 tions. What confidence cau be placed in the positive reference of supposed fossil Eungi to Spliceria, or of pinnated 

 leaves to Sapindus, and other fragments of foliage to existing genera of Laurinece, Ficus, and Vitis ? 



% O. Heer, Sur les Charbons feuilletes de Durnten et Utznach, in Mem. Soc. Helvet. Sc. Nat, 1S57; Bibl. 

 Univers. Genev. August, 1858. 



