So PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



lime, and others to live along with the laurel. In other words, 

 the summers were not so dry, and the winters were milder. The 

 flora of the Italian tufas betokens a similar climate. At the 

 time when that flora occupied the low grounds of Central Italy 

 the climate must have been exempt from extremes. It is well 

 that the reader should keep these conclusions in mind. Had 

 the Pleistocene Period been characterised by strongly-contrasted 

 summer and winter seasons, as some geologists maintain, it is 

 obvious that the tufas should have furnished us with a very 

 different suite of plants. 



Coming north to the valley of the Seine, we find still more 

 striking botanical evidence in favour of an equable climate 

 having prevailed in Pleistocene times. Near the village of La 

 Celle, not far from Moret, above the confluence of the Seine 

 and Loing, occurs an accumulation of tufa which, from the char- 

 acter of its fossil contents and from its relation to the Pleistocene 

 river-deposits of the Seine which it overlies, is unquestionably 

 of Pleistocene age. It has yielded to the researches of M. 

 Chouquet many plant-remains and shells, the former of which 

 have been described by Saporta, who gives this list of species : — 



1. Scolopendrium officinale. 



2. Gorylus avellana, L., common 



hazel. 



3. Populus canescens, Sm., common 



white poplar. 



4. Salix cinerea, L., gray willow. 



5. Salix fragilis, L., brittle willow. 



6. Ficus carica, L., fig-tree. 



7. Laurus nobilis, L., var. canari- 



ensis, Webb, Canary laurel. 



8. Fraxinus excelsior, common ash. 



9. Sambucus ebulus, L., Dane-wort 



or dwarf-elder. 



10. Hedera helix, L., common ivy. 



11. Clematis vitalba, L., clematis. 



12. Buxus sempervirens, L., box. 



13. Acer pseudo-platanus, L., syca- 



more. 



14. Euonymus europceus, L., Euro- 



pean spindle-tree. 



15. Euonymus latifolius, L., broad- 



leaved spindle -tree. 



16. Prunus mahaleb, L., perfumed 



cherry-tree. 



17. Cercis siliquastrum, L., judas- 



tree. 



This group, as Saporta proceeds to point out, indicates a 

 former geographical distribution very different from that which 

 now obtains. The fig-tree, the Canary laurel, the box, and 

 others, are no longer indigenous to the region round Paris. In 



