Parr IV. Secor. iv.§ 1] PLIOCENE. 871 
have been preserved, from which numerous remains of terrestrial 
_ vegetation and mammals have been obtained. 
The Pliocene flora is transitional between the 
luxuriant evergreen vegetation of the Miocene period , 
and that of modern Europe. From the evidence of | 
the beds in the upper part of the valley of the Arno | 
above Florence it is known to have included species of | 
pine, oak, evergreen oak, plum, plane, alder, elm, fig, | 
laurel, maple, walnut, birch, buckthorn, hickory,sumach, | 
sarsaparilla, sassafras, cinnamon, glyptostrobus, taxo- | 
dium, sequoia, &c.1 The researches of Count de Saporta 
- have shown that the flora of Meximieux, near Lyons, 
comprised species of bamboo, liquidambar, rose-laurel, 
tulip-tree, maple, ilex, glyptostrobus, magnolia, poplar, 
willow, and other familiar trees.2. The marked abund- 
ance of evergreen forms gave the flora a southern 
aspect, particularly in the older half of the Pliocene 

. : : PHAS MERIDIO- 
period. ‘There is evidence, however, that a marked  nanis (Nust0). 
refrigeration of climate was in gradual progress, during Crown of mo- 
which the plants specially characteristic of warmer hae 
latitudes one by one retreated from the European region. 
i 
oA 

Fic. 418.—HIpPARION GRACILE (GAUDRY) (5). 
The fauna of the Pliocene period still retained a number of the 
now extinct types of earlier time such as the Dernotheriwm and 
1 Gaudin, Fewilles fossiles de la Toscane. Gaudin et Strozzi, Contributions & la flere 
fossile italienne. Lyell, Elements, p. 190. Mi : 
2 “Recherches sur les Végétaux Fossiles de Meximieux,” Archiv. Mus. Lyon, i. 
(1875-6). 
