DE. HEEE ON THE FOSSIL FLOEA OF BOVET TEACET. 
1043 
the cinnamons [Cinnamomum lanceolatum and G. ScheucJizeri) and an evergreen oak 
( Quercus Lyelli, m.) like those which now are seen in Mexico. The species of evergreen 
fig were rarer, as were also those of Anona and of Gardenia. The trees of the ancient 
forest were ewdently festooned with vines, beside which the prickly Rotang-palm 
[Palmacites Pcemonorops) twined its snake-like form. In the shade of the forest throve 
numerous ferns, one species of which [Pecopteris lignitum) seems to have formed trees 
of imposing grandeur; besides which there were masses of underwood belonging to 
various species of the genus Nyssa, which is at present confined to North America. On 
the surface of the lake in which were formed the deposits of clay and sand that lie 
between the lignite-beds, were expanded the leaves of those water-lilies the ornate 
seeds of which are preserved for our examination. 
If we inquire fm'ther how far the plants help us to a definite view of the course of 
events by which these lignite-beds were formed, our conclusions will be somewhat of 
the following kind : — 
It is highly probable that at the period of the Lower Miocene the Bovey basin was 
occupied by an inland lake. The entire absence of freshwater shells, and indeed of 
aquatic animals generally, is certainly very extraordinary; and so is the absence of fruits 
of Chara, which abound elsewhere in Miocene freshwater deposits ; the Nymphcea seeds, 
however, afford positive proof of fresh water. We must not omit to notice that the parts 
of the basin hitherto explored, and the only parts which are accessible to investigation, 
lie at a great distance from the hills. Accordingly they were far from the bank, more 
in the middle of the lake, and, in the case of the lower beds, at a considerable depth. 
This explains the absence of bog plants, so numerous in other instances, as well as the 
absence of mammalian relics. These would not have drifted so far out into the lake, 
and probably they are to be found on the edge of the lignite formation, where the 
vegetation also may be expected to present a somewhat different character. The lignite- 
beds of the rmder series consist almost entirely of tree-stems (probably belonging in 
great measure to Seguoia CouUsice) ; these alternate with masses of a brownish-black 
clay, the dusky colour of which has doubtless been produced by the decomposition of 
the softer portions of the plant. No leaves offer themselves for recognition, but here 
and there twigs and seeds of Sequoia Couttsice, and little fruits, as Carpolithes Wehsteri 
and C. nitens. The tree-stems, which are here piled one over the other in huge masses 
(none of them stand upright), and which eveiy here and there stretch their branches and 
roots in the layer of clay which has covered them up, have apparently been floated 
hither, not only from the immediate circuit of hills, but doubtless also from greater 
distances. Such a mass of timber could hardly have been furnished by the former. 
Accordingly we learn from the structure of these lignite-beds that they did not originate 
in a tertiary peat-deposit, but from a colluvies of wood uniting in a lake ; and hence they 
differ widely from those of Paudeze, of Hohe Khonen, of Kapfnach, and other localities 
of Switzerland. At the same time the lignites of Bovey must have taken a long period 
in the process of formation, as the repeated alternations of clay-beds sufficiently show. 
