236 
ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. 
cene may best be studied on the northern borders of the 
Lake of Geneva, between Lausanne and Vevay, where the 
contiguous villages of Monod and Rivaz are situated. The 
strata there, which I have myself examined, consist of al¬ 
ternations of conglomerate, sandstone, and finely laminated 
marls with fossil plants. A small stream falls in a succes¬ 
sion of cascades over the harder beds of pudding-stone, whicli 
resist, while the sandstone and plant-bearing shales and marls 
give way. From the latter no less than 193 species of plants 
have been obtained by the exertions of MM. Heer and Gau- 
din, and they are considered to aflford a true type of the 
vegetation of the Lower Miocene formations of Switzerland— 
a vegetation departing farther in its character from that now 
flourishing in Europe than any of the higher members of the 
series before alluded to, and yet displaying so much afiinity 
to the flora of (Eningen as to make it natural for the bota¬ 
nist to refer the whole to one and the same Miocene period. 
There are, indeed, no less than 81 species of these Older Mio¬ 
cene plants which pass up into the flora of (Eningen. 
This fact is important as bearing on the propriety of clas¬ 
sifying the Lower Molasse of Switzerland as belonging to the 
Miocene rather than to the latter part of the Eocene period. 
There are, indeed, so many types among the fossils, both spe¬ 
cific and generic, which have a wide range through the whole 
of the Molasse, that a unity of character is thereby stamped 
on the whole flora, in spite of the contrast between the plants 
of the uppermost and lowest formations, or between (Enin¬ 
gen and Monod. The proofs of a warmer climate, and the ex¬ 
cess of arborescent over herbaceous plants, and of evergreen 
trees over deciduous species, are characters common to the 
whole flora, but which are intensified as we descend to the 
inferior deposits. 
Nearly all the plants at Monod are contained in three lay¬ 
ers of marl separated by two of soft sandstone. The thick¬ 
ness of the marls is ten feet, and vegetable matter predom¬ 
inates so much in some layers as to form an imperfect lig¬ 
nite. One bed is filled with large leaves of a species of fig 
{Ficus popidina)^ and of a hornbeam (Carpinus grandis)^ the 
strength of the wind having probably been great when they 
were blown into the lake; whereas another contiguous lay¬ 
er contains almost exclusively smaller leaves, indicating, ap¬ 
parently, a diminished strength in the wind. Some of the 
upper beds at Monod abound in leaves of Proteaceae, Cype- 
raceae, and ferns, while in some of the lower ones Sequoia^ 
Cimiamomum^ and Sparganium are common. In one bed 
of sandstone the trunk of a large palm-tree was found unac- 
