LOWER TERTIARY. 171 



foraminiferous shell named Nummulites Ictvigatus, 

 It does not form a thick bed; but probably marks 

 the geological horizon of the Nummulitic Lime- 



:.e, which is one of the most important lime- 

 Stones in the old world, and extends from the 

 Alps and Carpathians into Thibet, and from Mo- 

 rot na and Egypt through Cabul and the 



11 1 : - to China. 



In Great Britain the Bracklesham beds in S 

 sex and the Isle of Wight are alternations of 

 green sands and sandy clays, which are separated 

 from the overlying barton clay by a conglomerate 

 formed of rounded flint pebbles. At Bournemouth 

 their ch has changed. They are foxy-brown 



- of pipeclay, in which 

 ther flora, with many ferns, palms, cac- 

 tus, eu< alyptus, figs, willows, beech, and nipa. 

 The - is an American type. Subsequently 



the North of vegetation became 



more abundant in Europe in the middle Tertiary 



od, and better defined by many genera. The 

 Bat . - I he Bra< k U sham beds. It is 



a blue clay, about }oo feet thick, with an extraor- 

 dinary number of fossil shells, many of which are 

 similar in genera to those found in the London 

 .- and B iam beds, though the clay is 



characterised by the abundance of individuals of 

 the ge;.' tma, CrassaUlla y Fusus t and I'oluta, 



and by the presence of some peculiar genera like 

 Typhis, a univalve similar to Murex, except that 

 the spines are tubular. There is no such fauna 

 anywhere to be met with at the present day. It 

 is not unlike a blending of the existing Malayan 

 and New Zealand forms of marine life; and 

 many of the shells, like the Crassatella, Typhis, 

 Chama, Pec ten, Pectunculus, are very similar to 



