GEOLOGICAL ANTIQUITY OF FLOWERS AND INSECTS. 
49 
appeared among the later floral developments. This is cer- 
tainly their order of numerical proportion, and we have little 
doubt it is also that of the actual succession and appearance in 
time of flowering plants. 
The Tertiary epoch is that which up to a few years ago was 
believed to have first witnessed the introduction of dicotyle- 
donous plants. We have seen that this is not the case. But 
as we should expect from the line of argument employed, their 
number becomes numerically greater as we approach the present 
Pig. 4. 
acer trilobatum, upper Miocene, (ENiNGEN. From a specimen in Ipswich Museum. 
era. The Eocene beds of Hampshire and elsewhere have yielded 
abundant remains of a flora of a nearly tropical character, 
but which is on the whole related to that found in the older so- 
called “Upper Cretaceous” formations of Aix-la-Chapelle and 
America. The Eocene plants include many genera now deemed 
peculiarly Australian, such as the Proteacece ; smilax, dryandras, 
acacias, azaleas, cactuses, aroids, figs, &c. abounded ; and their 
remains are found fossilized with those of fan-palms, feather- 
palms, and others. Climbing plants and Ilian es then festooned 
the forest trees, as they now do the woods of the West Indies. 
NEW SERIES, VOL. II. — NO. V. E 
