he views. 
362 
stages, broad and strongly veined leaves of large size prevail. Asso¬ 
ciated with these, at first in small, but in constantly increasing 
proportion towards the upper eocene, are narrow, long, coriaceous, 
spinose, or entire leaves (referred to Proteacese). To these the broad 
leaves at length in great measure give place, and become rare and 
exceptional. At a still later period the leaf-remains of the Ter¬ 
tiary beds indicate a vegetation more nearly similar to that of present 
Europe ; the narrow, coriaceous leaves and small fruits, characteristic 
of the middle period in their turn disappearing. What M. de Sa- 
porta here says as to the general prevalence of different forms of leaf 
at different periods is doubtless true, but we cannot admit the value 
of such evidence as proof of his statement, that 44 les groupes les plus 
“ eloignes se rapprochent alors en apparence par la propension qu’ils 
“ out a prendre des feuilles configurers d’une maniere analogue.” 
Nor do we find that “ les formes vegetates soumises dans leur en- 
“ sernble a line influence d'un ordre particulier peuvent revetir une 
“ physionomie commune,”—-unless, perhaps, we except the spinose and 
woody character of desert vegetation, and one or two similar cases 
very imperfectly understood. 
We must pass by the C. de Sap orta’s review of the geological 
features and relations of the Tertiary beds of Provence, and briefly 
notice the third and fourth chapters, devoted to descriptions of the 
vegetable remains of the lower lignites of the celebrated 'yypse 
cVAioc 
The remains referred to at some length by the author, in his im¬ 
portant 4 Examen des flores tertiares de Provence,’* published in 
Prof. TXeer’s 4 Essai sur le climat, &c., du pa}^s tertiare,’ (p. 133), as 
of peculiar interest, from their occurrence at the bottom of the Pro¬ 
vencal tertiary system, are here described in detail and figured. 
They clearly belong to some Monocotyledon, although their 
affinities are excessively obscure, and can only be guessed at. An 
order— Rhizocaulecie —is based upon these remains, which indicate 
leafy marsh plants with plane, finely striate leaves, destitute of a 
midrib. We see no reason why JRJiizocaulon may not be, in every 
respect, as good a “genus” as are very many other fossil genera of 
even tertiary date, and we do not quarrel with Count de Saporta be¬ 
cause he has thought fit to base a 44 natural order” upon these frag¬ 
ments of stem, surrounded by sheathing leaf-bases and adventitious 
rootlets. Our quarrel would be rather with the whole system of 
nomenclature of vegetable fossil remains, which is based apparently 
upon principles which unimaginative workers in the more sober field 
of recent systematic Botany can have but faint conception of, fast 
and loose enough though, in practice, these systematists may them¬ 
selves too often be. However, we freely acknowledge the peculiar 
difficulty attending the nomenclature of these vegetable remains, and 
* See also 4 Examen Aiialytiqne/ p. 17. 
