INTERGLACIAL EPOCHS. 309 



The lignites appear to be composed for the most part of the 

 remains of trees ; they are almost black, and somewhat fissile. 

 Sometimes the upper surface of the principal seam consists of 

 a mass of trunks and branches confusedly interlaced, which evi- 

 dently had grown in situ ; at other times the lignite would give 

 one the impression that it had been laid down in water. The 

 absence of impurities, however, might perhaps indicate that the 

 formation took place on the low, marshy shores of a still sheet 

 of water, which now and again rose in level, and so caused mud 

 and marl to gather over the surface of its peaty margins ; but 

 according to Stopanni, the whole is nothing bat floated wood, 

 which has been deposited in the bed of a lake. 



Sordelli gives the following list of plants obtained from the 

 lignites of Leffe : — 1 



Finns, sp. Acer tribulatum (?), Stern. 



Abies excelsa. JEsculus luppocastanum , L. 



„ Balsami, Sord. Juglans bergomensis, Bals. 



Larix europcea, D.C. Trapa natans, L. 



Corylus avellana, L. Folliculites newirthianus, Mass. 



The walnut-tree seems to have grown luxuriantly, and its 

 remains are perhaps more abundant than those of any of the 

 other species named by Sordelli. During my visit to one of the 

 " opencast workings," I picked out several walnuts within the 

 space of a yard or two. The flora of the Leffe lignite does 

 not contradict that of the Val Borlezza ; it indicates a climate 

 which, according to Sordelli, was certainly not cold, but as 

 genial as that of the plains of Lombardy and Venetia. 



A number of mammalian remains have been found asso- 

 ciated with the lignite beds, and referred by Dr. Forsyth Major 

 to the following species : — 



Elephas meridionalis, Nesti. 



Rhinoceros leptorhinus, Cuv. (=i2. megarhinus, De Christol.) 



Bos etruscus, Falc. 



Cervus ; two species. 



Castor europceus (?). 



Arvicola, sp. (not. A. agrestis). 



1 Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat., v. xvi. (1874), p. 350. 



