Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/81

] the analogous species of Europe are found in the Mediterranean countries, in America, in the southern United States (Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, and Carolina), and also in California, in the Caucasian region of Asia, in Japan, in Asia Minor, in Madeira, and the Canary Islands. Swiss Meiocene species are also represented in the torrid zone of Asia, in the Sunda Islands, and in tropical America.

"When the mass of vegetation is considered, which was the special characteristic of Switzerland in Meiocene times, greatly increased prominence is given to the Japanese types by the abundance of camphor trees and Glyptostrobi; to the Atlantic element by the laurels; to the American types by the numerous evergreen oaks, maples, poplars, planes, liquidambars, Rohiniæ, Sequoiæ, Taxodia, and ternate-leaved pines; and to the types of Asia Minor by the Planeræ and a species of poplar (Populus mutabilis). The greatest number and the most important of the types of the Swiss Meiocene flora belong, therefore, to a belt lying between the isothermal lines of 59° and 77° Fahr. (15° to 25° Cent.), and in this zone America is now the region mostly correspondent to the natural character of the Swiss Meiocene land."

The mammals inhabiting the Meiocene forests of Europe must be considered in three divisions, as they appeared successively in time. The first group of mammals presents, as may be expected, an assemblage of forms, some of which are new, while others