up in the Egyptian Desert,
in order that I might if possible determine their age, I told him, ere
yet the optical lapidary had prepared them for examination, that if they
exhibited the coniferous structure, they might belong to any geologic
period from the times of the Lower Old Red Sandstone downwards; but that
if they manifested in their tissue the dicotyledonous character, they
could not be older than the times of the Tertiary. On submitting them in
thin slices to the microscope, they were found to exhibit the peculiar
dicotyledonous structure as strongly as the oak or chestnut. And
Lieutenant Newbold's researches in the deposit in which they occur has
since demonstrated, on stratigraphical evidence, that not only does it
belong to the great Tertiary division, but also to one of the
comparatively modern formations of the Tertiary.

[Illustration: Fig. 38

EQUISETUM COLUMNARE.

(Nat. size.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 39.

CARPOLITHES CONICA.

(Reduced one third.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 40.

CARPOLITHES BUCKLANDII.[10]

(Reduced one third.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 41.

ACER TRILOBATUM.[11]

(Miocene of OEningen.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 42.

ULMUS BRONNII.[12]

(Miocene of Bohemia.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 43.

PALMACITES LAMANONIS.

(A Palm of the Miocene of Aix.)]

The earlier flora of this Tertiary division presents an aspect widely
different from that of any of the previous ones. The ferns and their
allies sink into their existing proportions; nor do the coniferae,
previously so abundant, occupy any longer a prominent place. On the
other hand, the dicotyledonous herbs and trees, previously so
inconspicuous in creation, are largely developed. Trees of those
Amentiferous orders to which the oak, the hazel, the beech, and the
plane belong, were perhaps not less abundant in the Eocene woods than in
those of the present time: they were mingled with trees of the Laurel,
the Leguminous, and the Anonaceous or custard apple families, with many
others; and deep forests, in the latitude of London (in which the
intertropical forms must now be protected, as in the Crystal Palace,
with coverings of glass, and warmed by artificial heat), abounded in
graceful palms. Mr. Bowerbank found in the London clay of the island of
Sheppey alone the fruits of no fewer than thirteen different species of
this picturesque family, which lends so peculiar a feature to the
landscapes in which it occurs; and ascertained that the un