OLDER PLIOCENE FLORA OF ITALY. 
209 
Florence, and stated that below those sands and conglomer¬ 
ates, containing the remains of the Elephas meridionalis and 
other associated quadrupeds, lie an older horizontal and con¬ 
formable series of beds, which may be classed as Older Plio¬ 
cene. They consist of blue clays with some subordinate 
layers of lignite, and exhibit a richer flora than the overly¬ 
ing Newer Pliocene beds, and one receding farther from the 
existing vegetation of Europe. They also comprise more 
species common to the antecedent Miocene period. Among 
the genera of flowering plants, M. Gaudin enumerates pine, 
oak, evergreen oak, plum, plane, alder, elm, fig, laurel, maple, 
walnut, birch, buckthorn, hickory, sumach, sarsaparilla, sassa¬ 
fras, cinnamon, Glyptostrobus, Taxodium, Sequoia, Persea, 
Oreodaphne (Fig. 134), Cassia, and Psoralea, and some oth¬ 
ers. This assemblage of plants indicates a warm climate, 
but not so subtropical an one as that of the Upper Miocene 
period, which will presently be considered. 
M. Gaudin, jointly with the Marquis Strozzi, has thrown 
much light on the botany of beds of the same age in another 
Fig. 134. Fig. 135. 
Oreodaphne Heerii. 
Leaf half uat. size.* 
Liquidamhar europceum, var. trilobatum, A. Br. (sometimes 
four-lobed, and more commonly live-lobed). 
a. Leaf, half nat. size. b. Part of same, nat. size. c. Fruit, 
nat. size. d. Seed, do. (Eningen. 
part of Tuscany, at a place called Montajone, between the 
rivers Elsa and Evola, where, among other plants, is found 
the Oreodaphne Heerii^ Gaud, (see Fig. 134), which is prob¬ 
ably only a variety of Oreodaphne foetens^ or the laurel called 
* Feuilles fossiles de la Toscane. 
