1 16    Migration  of  Plants  from  Europe  to  America,  {^"^'yT.^I^I^"^' 
unknown  and  long  forgotten,  where  onc  e  it  lived  in  the  Eastern  World,  but  faith- 
fully recorded  in  these  volumes,  and  yet  surviving  through  American  relatives  in  the 
West  The  woods  of  Europe  once  contained  trees  identical  with  those  now  grow- 
ing in  the  forests  of  North  America.  The  miocene  formations  of  Switzerland  have 
yielded  to  the  labor  of  Prof.  Heer,  of  Zurich,  a  rich  harvest  of  fossil  plants  amount- 
ing to  at  least  900  species.  The  descriptions  and  illustrations  of  these  may  be  found 
in  his^great  work  on  the  "  Tertiary  Flora  of  Switzerland  "  (i855-''59).  These  tertiary- 
beds  lie  in  the  great  valley  between  the  Jura  Mountains  and  the  Alps,  and  bear  the 
name  of  the  Molasse.  From  other  parts  of  Europe  also,  and  from  high  northern 
regions,  similar  fossil  remains  have  been  brought  to  light,  and  our  knowledge  of  the 
European  tertiary  flora,  though  still  very  fragmentary,  is  in  a  condition  to  admit  of 
fair  comparison  with  the  existing  floras  of  the  world. 
Space  will  not  allow  a  minute  enumeration  of  examples  j  nor  is  it  necessary  for 
the  purpose  of  establishing  the  assertion  made  above  concerning  the  relationship  of 
the  living  plants  of  America  to  the  fossil  tertiary  plants  of  Europe.  A  few  illus- 
trations of  the  better  known  forms  will  suffice.  Among  the  relics  obtained  from 
the  beds  at  Oeningen  are  the  leaves  of  a  maple  tree  with  flowers  and  seed.  Europe 
possesses  several  maples,  but  these  fossils  resemble  none  of  them,  while  they  can 
scarcely  be  distinguished  from  the  common  red  maple  {^Acer  rubrum)  of  North 
America.  Europe  also  possesses  her  Plane  tree  [Platanus  orientalis),  but  the  fossil 
plane  of  Oeningen  is  not  identical  with  this.  It  much  more  closely  resembles  the 
Western  Plane  or  Button-wood  [P.  occidentalis)  of  America.  The  Miocene  Vine 
of  Oeningen  is  of  an  American  type,  and  very  closely  allied  to  the  Muscadine  or 
Southern  Fox  Grape  of  Maryland  and  Kentucky.  A  Fan  Palm  [Sabal  major)  has 
been  found  in  the  Swiss  Miocene.  It  belongs  to  a  genus  now  known  only  in 
America,  and  found  in  the  Southern  States.  The  genus  Taxodium,  to  which 
belongs  the  beautiful  Bald  Cypress  (T.  distichu?n)  of  the  Southern  cedar  swamps, 
was  once  represented  in  Europe  by  a  species  so  like  the  American  that  its  remains 
can  be  with  difficulty  distinguished.  The  Tulip  Tree  [Liriodendron  tulipiferum)  is 
the  queen  of  the  forest  in  the  Middle  States.  It  Europe  it  has  passed  away,  but  its 
remains  are  entombed  in  the  Swiss  Miocene.  Another  of  these  tertiary  fossils — an 
elm-like  tree — was  at  first  only  distinguished  from  the  American  Planer  Tree 
[Planera  aquatica)  by  Prof.  Heer  on  account  of  the  size  of  its  fruit;  but  on  seeing 
the  specimens  at  Kew  he  admitted  that  no  distinction  could  be  drawn  between  them. 
The  Giant  Redwood  [Sequoia  gigantea)  lingers  in  California,  dependent  upon  the 
protection  of  man  to  save  it  from  extinction.  Though  now  replanted  and  flourish- 
ing in  European  shrubberies,  it  passed  away  from  that  continent  ages  before  the 
woodman's  axe  or  the  more  murderous  forest  fire  had  begun  to  destroy.  Of  some- 
what more  recent  date,  but  yet  fossil,  is  the  European  Sweet  Gum  Tree  [Liquid- 
amhar  Europaum)^  a  species  closely  allied  to  the  Sweet  Gum  of  the  Eastern  and 
Middle  States  of  America  (Z.  styracijiuum),  but  the  genus  is  now  totally  unknown 
in  Europe.  Again,  the  Black  Walnut  of  America  [Juglans  nigra)  lies  buried  in 
the  Miocene  beds  at  Oeningen,  and  Europe  has  imported  the  far  superior  walnut 
from  Persia  to  supply  its  place.  The  writer  has  been  informed  that  the  late  Prof. 
Agassiz,  on  his  arrival  in  this  country,  applied  to  a  gentleman  well  known  for  his 
