Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/80

52 throughout the Meiocene strata, and are found fossil in Italy, Germany, France, and Britain. The former is a native of southern Asia, but it thrives also in Sicily and Madeira, while the latter resembles a Japanese laurel.

The camphors, cinnamons, and laurels were large evergreen forest trees; the sassafras was probably a shrub or small tree. A species of sandal-wood tree, belonging to a well-marked Australian genus, Leptomaria, and the Australian Proteaceous genera, Hakea, Dryandra, Banksia, and Grevillia, have also been met with. Of the climbers, the convolvulus family is represented by the Indian genus Porana, while Bignonias, now found only in the sub-tropical and torrid zones, wound round the trees. There were also small-leaved ivies, and vines allied to the American fox-grape; and among the climbing plants several species of Sarsaparilla. Magnolias, tulip trees, and planes ranged in the Meiocene age from Italy to Iceland, and the gum tree from Italy to Britain.

The general conclusions drawn by Professor Heer as to the Swiss Meiocene species are as follows:—"Of the species most nearly resembling the Swiss Meiocene species, 83 live in the northern United States and 103 in the southern United States, 40 in tropical America, 6 in Chili, 58 in central Europe, 79 in the Mediterranean zone, 23 in the temperate, 45 in the warm, and 40 in the torrid zone of Asia, 25 in the Atlantic islands, 26 in Africa, and 21 in Australia.

"These numbers show that in the Meiocene period Switzerland was inhabited by types of plants which are now scattered over all parts of the world, but that most of them correspond to American species. Europe only stands in the second rank, Asia in the third, Africa in the fourth, and Australia in the fifth. Most of