254 



UPPER MIOCENE FLORA OF (ENINGEN. 



[Cn. XV. 



called Acer trilohatum, fig. 182, may be taken as a normal representa- 

 tive of the (Eningen fossil, and fig. 183 as one of the most divergent 

 varieties, having almost four lobes in the leaf instead of three. 



We have a remarkable example in fig. 185 of the preservation of 

 the female flower, enabling the botanist to recognize the resemblance 

 between the petals of the Miocene species and those of -the living 

 Acer ruhrum, fig. 184.* 



In like manner the fossil specimen, fig. 186 b, shows how much 

 more pointed were the winged appendages of the seed-vessels than 

 are those of the most nearly allied living species, fig. 184 a. 



Among the genera which abounded in the Miocene period in Eu- 

 rope is the plane-tree, Platanus, the fos- 

 sil species being considered by Heer to 

 come nearer to the American P. occiden- 

 talis than to P. orientalis of Greece and 

 Asia Minor. In some of the fossil speci- 

 mens the male flowers are preserved. 

 Among other points of resemblance 

 with the living plane-trees, as we see 

 them in the parks and squares of Lon- 

 don, fossil fragments of the trunk are 

 met with, having pieces of their bark 

 peeling off. 



No leaves of the beech-tree or of the 

 chestnut have yet been found in any Mio- 

 cene strata of Switzerland, although in 

 formations of the same age in Germany, 

 leaves of one of them, namely, the beech, have been detected. Many 

 species of the laurel tribe characterize the flora both of the Upper 



Platanus aceroides, Gopp 



Heer, pi. 88, figs. 5-8. 



Size | diam. Upper Miocene, 



(Eningen. 



a. Leaf. 



b. The core of a bundle of pericarps, 

 c Single fruit or pericarp, nat. size. 



Fisr. 188. 



Fig. 189. 



Ciivnamomum polymorphum, Ad. Brong. 



a. Leaf. 



b. Flower, nat. size. Heer, pi. 93, fig. 28. 



Upper and Lower Miocene. 



a. Eipe fruit of Cinnamomum polymorphum. 



from 03ningen. Heer, pi. 94, fig. 14. 



b. Fruit of recent Cinnamomum camphora of 



Japan. Heer, pi. 152, fig. 18. 



* Heer, vol. iii. p. 19V. 



