So: 



THE TERTIARY PERIOD 



ming, and Idaho. It was very rich and varied, and bears evidence 

 of a climate much milder than now obtains in those localities. 

 Besides Ferns and Horsetails, this flora includes some Grasses, 

 Bananas, and many noble Palms (Fig. 165), Myrtles, Beeches, 

 Oaks, Willows, Poplars, Elms, Sycamores, Laurels, Magnolias, 

 Maples, Walnuts, Pines, Spruces, Arbor Vitae, and the like. Even 



in Greenland and 

 Alaska was a lux- 

 uriant growth of 

 forests of a tem- 

 perate character, 

 such as could not 

 exist there now. 



The European 

 flora has a more 

 decidedly tropical 

 character than that 

 of North Amer- 

 ica, and contains 

 plants whose near- 

 est living allies are 

 now widely scat- 

 tered, occurring in 

 the warmer parts 

 of America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Cypresses, Yews, and 

 Pines are abundant, including the Sequoia, now confined to 

 California, and the Gingko of China and Japan. Aloes, Palms, 

 and Screw-pines occur, mingled with the ordinary temperate forest 

 trees, Elms, Poplars, Willows, Oaks, etc. The distribution of plants 

 in the Eocene was thus very different from what it is at present. 



Animals. — Foraminifera of relatively enormous size abounded, 

 and their shells make up great rock masses. Orbitolites is a con- 

 spicuous genus along our Gulf coasts, Nummulites in the Old World. 

 Corals are completely modern in character. The Sea-urchins and 

 especially the Iri'egulares are much the most important repre- 

 sentatives of the Echinoder7ns, Of the Mollnsca both Bivalves 



Fig. 



165. — Flabellaria eocenica. 

 Shales. 



1/12. Green River 



