308 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
BOTANY. 
On the Trees and Shrubs of the South of France which Perish in Severe 
Winters. — M. C. Martins has communicated to the Academy of Sciences 
{“ Comptes rendus,” March 19, 1877, p. 534), a paper on the indigenous 
trees and shrubs of the South of France which suffer from frost in excep- 
tionally severe winters, in which he attempts to demonstrate their relation- 
ship to the former flora of this part of France. These plants are as follows, 
arranged in the order of their sensibility to cold: — Ceratonia siliqua , Eu- 
phorbia dendroides, Ostrya carpinifolia , Neriurn Oleander , Chamcerops hwnilis , 
My Hus communis , Anthyllis barba-jovis , Laurus nobilis , Anagyris fcetida , 
Punica granatum , Olea europcea , Ficus carica, Coriaria myrtifolia, Smilax 
aspera, Pistachia lentiscus, Viburnum tinus , Quercus Ilex,\Cistus monspeliensis , 
and Vitis vinifera. 
M. Martins remarks that these plants are all more or less of exotic types. 
Some of them are the sole European representatives of certain groups, 
families, tribes, or genera of plants. Anthyllis barba-jovis , Pistachia lentiscus, 
Viburnum tinus , Quercus Ilex , and Cistus monspeliensis alone form parts of 
families which possess other European genera or species. Most of them are 
of rare and local occurrence, only flourishing in exceptionally sheltered 
places, having the climate warmer, both in summer and winter, than open 
spots exposed to all winds. The Pistachia, the Cishis, the Smilax, and the 
Evergreen Oak are the only ones common throughout the Mediterranean 
littoral zone of France. Vibernum tinus and Anagyris fcetida flower in the 
middle of winter. 
All these peculiarities M. Martins thinks may be easily explained by 
assuming that these plants are survivors from the flora which covered the 
soil of Southern France during the Tertiary period. The vegetation of that 
period, as revealed by its fossil remains, indicates a much warmer climate 
than now prevails in the littoral zone, and most of the species which scarcely 
differ from those now living are found in the lacustrine deposits of the 
region itself, and have been for the most part described by Count Saporta. 
Of Ceratonia five fossil species are described ; one, the Ceratonia siliqua , has 
survived the climatic changes which have occurred since the Miocene, and 
especially the Glacial epoch. Its most probable ancestor is C. vetusta, Sap., 
from the gypsum of Aix. The common Myrtle is the descendant of Myrtus 
atava , Sap., of the Miocene calcareous slates of Armissan, near Narbonne, 
and it has been found fossil in the volcanic deposits of Saint-Jorge, in 
Madeira, by Professor Heer. The Oleander ( Neriurn Oleander) passed through 
the whole Tertiary period. It occurs in the Eocene of the Sarthe, and in 
the Miocene of Oropo, in Attica, and its form, N. Gaudrianum, Ad. Brongn., 
is intermediate between N. Oleander and N. odorum. Thus the fossil species 
has split into two living species. Thirty fossil species of Laurels are known ; 
one, Laurus nobilis , is still living in the region, and it existed during the 
lower Pliocene epoch, as it occurs in the tufs of Meximieux. Nearly-allied 
species, L. canariensis, Webb, and L.fcetens, Ait. {Oreodaphne fcetens, Nees), 
descending from Oreodaphne Heerii, Gaud., of the Tuscan Quaternary 
deposits, have maintained themselves in the Canaries, the insular climate of 
