238 
ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. 
that among the living Proteacese the cones are very firmly 
attached to the branches, so that the seeds drop out without 
the cone itself falling to the ground, and this may perhaps 
be the reason why, in some instances in which fossil seeds 
have been found, no traces of the cone have been observed. 
Fig. 152. 
a h 
a. Fruit of fossil Banksia. 
h. Leaf of Bauksia Deek- 
iaua. 
Fig. 153. 
Sequoia Langsdorjii. Ad. Brong., i natural 
size. Rivaz, near Lausanne; Heer, PI. 
21, Fig. 4. Upper and Lower Miocene 
and Lower Pliocene, Val d’Arno. 
a. Branch with leaves. 5. Young cone. 
Fig. 154. 
Among the Coniferse the Sequoia here figured, is common 
at Rivaz, and is one of the most universal plants in the Low¬ 
est Miocene of Switzerland, while it also characterizes the 
Miocene Brown Coals of Germany and certain beds of the 
Val d’Arno, which I have called Older Pliocene, p. 208. 
Among the ferns met with in profusion at Monod is the 
Lastrcea stiriaca^ Unger, 
which has a wide range 
in the Miocene period 
from strata of the*age of 
CEningen to the lowest 
part of the Swiss Mo- 
lasse. In some speci¬ 
mens, as shown in Figure 
154, the fructification is 
distinctly seen. 
Among the laurels sev¬ 
eral species of Cinnamo- 
mum are very conspicu¬ 
ous. Besides the C.poly- 
morphum,^ before figured, 
p. 219, another species 
also ranges from the 
Lower to the Upper Mo- 
lasse of Switzerland, and 
Lastrcea stiriaca, Ung.; Heer’s Flora, PI. 143, 
Fig. 8. Natural size. Lower and Upper Mio¬ 
cene, Switzerland. 
a. Specimen from Monod, showing the position 
of the sori on the jniddle of the tertiary 
nerves, h. More common appearance, where 
the sori remain and the nerves are obliter¬ 
ated. 
