134 



BRITISH EOCENE FLORA. 



with just sufficient exceptions to prove the rule, a remarkable resemblance to still existing 

 species. In some cases the fossil and the living plants are, so far as their organisation 

 can be compared, unquestionably the same species, though, even in these cases, they do 

 not bear the specific names attaching to the corresponding recent plants. However 

 well preserved, some of the organs necessary for accurate botanical determination are 

 certain not to be in the perfect state requisite for proper examination, and we have 

 therefore to rely greatly on superficial resemblances. It seems to be the opinion of 

 botanists that they should not, under such circumstances, be definitely united together. 

 For all practical purposes, however, their identity might, in some cases, be as safely 

 admitted as that of a vertebrate animal from its skeleton, or a mollusc from its shell. 



If among them there are few strange and extinct types to marvel at, we must at 

 least become lost in wonder at the extraordinary plant migrations they disclose, and the 

 great changes in the relative positions of land and water, and of climate necessary for 

 such migrations to have been practicable. The time is not yet when we can discuss 

 profitably what these changes must have been, but at a future time we may be in a 

 position to do so. We shall only show that during the vast lapse of time known as the 

 Eocene, what are at present the shores of Great Britain supplied a common home 

 for genera and species of Conifers which now only inhabit the remotest parts of the 

 earth. 



Of CuPREssiNE.E, now Only represented in England by the Juniper, we formerly 

 possessed in our Southern Counties two Frenelas identical with species now exclusively 

 confined to Australia and Tasmania, and a Libocedrus, which does not diff'er from the 

 magnificent Incense-cedar of the Sierra Nevada. These give place in the Middle 

 Eocene to a Cypress resembling the Funeral-cypress of China, while in the Irish area the 

 lovely Ciipressm torulosa of the Himalayas flourished in the greatest profusion. 



There is now no representative of the fast-diminishing Taxodie^ living in Europe, 

 nor within 5000 miles of Great Britain, but then every genus was represented within 

 its area, for we not only had the GJyptostrohm of China, but the great Deciduous or 

 Swamp Cypress of Florida. Both types of Sequoia seem to have formed part of our 

 Eocene Flora, although some of our Eocene foliage is merely placed in the same genus 

 with the Californian Red-wood, on account of the resemblance it bears to a French 

 Sequoia. We had, however, two undoubted and beautiful species of the genus Athrotaxis, 

 never previously found fossil, and now exclusively confined to the far-off' Island of Van 

 Uiemen's Land, nearly 12,000 miles away. Further and repeated examination has 

 confirmed the opinion that the Sheppey form is practically indistinguishable from Athro- 

 taxis selapnoides, while the exquisitely preserved Hordwell specimens are identical 

 with Athrotaxis cupressoides. While these were flourishing in England, the well-known 

 Cryptomeria of Japan was thoroughly established in Ireland and Scotland. 



The determinations of some of the Taxe^e are less satisfactory, for though Ginlcgo, 

 which abounded in Scotland, can always be identified, the Yew, though evidently of great 



