“Lastly, following the advice of my learned associate, M. Elie de Beaumont, I have included in the same Flora the plants contained in the Lignites of the shores of the Baltic and Pomerania, so rich in amber, in which these vegetables have often been preserved. It is to the labours of M. Gœppert that we are indebted for a knowledge of these vegetables, most frequently represented by very small fragments, the relations of which he has determined with much skill and accuracy.”
With materials collected in these various localities, but of which the greater part are still unpublished, we may construct the Flora of the Eocene epoch; but the list, comprehending only the species described, or at least determined, is only a mere sketch.
M. Brongniart then gives the names of the vegetables belonging to the Eocene epoch; these are, for the Amphigenous cryptogams, algæ, and mushrooms; for the Acrogenous cryptogams, hepatici, mosses, ferns, equisetaceæ, and characeæ. The Monocotyledons present Naiades, Nipaceæ, and palms. The Gymnospermous dicotyledons are represented by Coniferæ (Cupressinæ, Abietineæ, Taxineæ, and Gnetaceæ.) Lastly, among the Angiospermous dicotyledons, we find examples of Betulaceæ, Cupuliferæ, Juglandeæ, Ulmaceæ, Proteaceæ, Leguminosæ, Œnothereæ, Cucurbitaceæ, Sapindaceæ, Malvaceæ, Ericaceæ, and three doubtful families (Phyllites, Antholithes, and Carpolithes.)
"The most remarkable characters of this Flora are,—
"1st, The great quantity of Algæ and marine Naiades, characters owing to the extent and thickness of the marine formations of this epoch.
"2d, The great number of Coniferæ, the greater part belonging to genera still existing, but among which the Cupressineæ appear to predominate, especially if we admit as positively belonging to this family the various fruits of the Isle of Sheppey, which M. Bowerbank has described under the name of Cupressinites, and of which M. Endlicher has formed the genera Callitrites, Frenelites, and Solenostrobus. If these fruits really belong to European vegetation, they indicate very peculiar generic forms, probably now wholly extinct.
"3d, The existence of many large species of palm, equally shewn by the occurrence of their leaves and stems.
"2. Miocene Epoch.—This Eocene or middle epoch of the Tertiary formations appears to me to comprehend the following localities among those which have furnished materials for the study of the vegetation of the Tertiary period: 1st, In the environs of Paris, the superior sandstones, or those of Fontainebleau and the Meulieres, or Buhrstone, which crown our coasts; 2d, The sandstone, with impressions, in the environs of Mans and Angers, and probably those of Bergerac, in the department of the Dordogne; 3d, A part of the Tertiary formations of Auvergne, and particularly those of the mountain Gergovia, formations which, by their impressions, appear more ancient than those of Menat, but which perhaps all belong to different stages of the Pliocene epoch; 4th, The fresh-water formations of Armissan, near Narbonne, the Gypsum of Aix in Provence, the Lignites of Provence, whose vegetable fossils are scarcely known; finally, the Lacustrine formations, rich in the wood of palms, and in stems of Monocotyledons, from Upper Provence, near Apt and Castellane; 5th, A part of the Tertiary formations of Italy, and particularly those of Superga, near Turin; 6th, The Mollasse of Switzerland, with its Lignites, at Lausanne, Kœpfnac, and Horgen, containing the remains of palms; 7th, The Lignites of the banks of the Rhine near Cologne and Bonn, at Friesborf, Liblar, &c., sometimes enclosing wood of palms, and those of Wetteravia at Nidda, near Frankfort, and other places; as well as those of Weisner near Cassel, which all appear to be of the same epoch, although those of Wetteravia, by the abundance of certain genera of Dicotyledons, such as juglans and acer, and even by many cases of specific identity, seem to make a nearer approach to the Pliocene flora; 8th, A part of the Lignites of Bohemia, and particularly those of Altsattel, whose fossils, described by M. de Sternberg and M. Rossmæssler, generally agree with those of the other localities already mentioned. The other Lignites of Bohemia, those of Bilin and of Comothau in particular, enter completely into the Pliocene flora; 9th, Hœrring in the Tyrol, and Radoboj in Croatia, of which M. Unger has so well described the numerous impressions in his Chloris Protogæa, and which have almost become the type of the Miocene flora.
"With the exception of the Lignite formations of the neighbourhood of Cassel and Frankfort—the species of which have often numerous points of connection with those of Œningen and Parschlug, and which enter rather into the Pliocene flora—the different localities I have mentioned have numerous relations between them as to their fossil vegetables. Thus, the Nymphea Arethusæ is found in the Meulières or Buhrstone of Paris, and in the marls of Armissan; the Flabellaria rhapifolia and maxima recur at Hœring in the Tyrol, at Radoboj in Croatia, and in the superior sandstones of the environs of Angers and Perigneux.
"The Callitrites Brongniartii, Endl., is likewise met with in the formations of Armissan, Aix, in Provence, at Hœring and Radoboj.