palms were conspicuous. Gigantic aroids were also to be seen, and various representatives of the family of Sarsaparilla. There were groves of poplars, elms, laurels, oaks, hornbeams, beeches, chestnuts, willows, planes, figs, buckthorns, walnuts, maples, spindle-trees, and bread-fruits. The Celtis or nettle-tree, several sorts of banksia, and the Eucalyptus or gum-tree, may be noted among the remarkable Australian genera presented by the flora. Giant cacti also raised their forms like the huge candelabra that overlook the arid deserts of New Mexico. The tree trunks were garlanded with large creepers belonging to the tropical families of Porana and Bignonia.
A similar group of vegetation has been identified by Dr. Heer from Monte Bolca in Lombardy, from which it may be inferred that the climate of Europe was more uniform in mid Eocene times than it is at the present day.
The Mid Eocene Mammalia.
These forests afforded shelter and food to a fauna of which very scant traces have been identified. In this country the Lophiodon of Bracklesham, an animal resembling the tapir in general appearance, and presenting great variations in size, is the only well-defined mammalian species. In France[1] it is associated with two tapiroid genera (Pachynolophus, Pro-palæotherium), and animals allied to the hogs and omnivorous carnivores (Anchilophus, Dichobune, Heterohyus). There also were true carnivores of uncertain affinities, one as large as a lion, a second about the size of a badger, and a
- ↑ Gervais, Zool. et Pal, Franç. p. 327. In this view of the French mid Eocene mammalia, I have followed Gervais rather than Gaudry.
