HKB
its teeth (which, as in all the old-World apes, exactly agree in number with those in man) it differed from the Gorilla and Chimpanzee, and corresponded with the human species.
Upper Miocene Beds of Œningen, in Switzerland.—The faluns of the Loire first served, as already stated (p. 211), as the type of the Miocene formations in Europe. They yielded a plentiful harvest of marine fossil shells and corals, but were entirely barren of plants and insects. In Switzerland, on the other hand, deposits of the same age have been discovered, remarkable for their botanical and entomological treasures. We are indebted to Professor Heer, of Zurich, for the description, restoration, and classification of several hundred species and varieties of these fossil plants, the whole of which he has illustrated by excellent figures in his “Flora Tertiaria Helvetiæ.” This great work, and those of Adolphe Brongniart, Unger, Goppert and others, show that this class of fossils is beginning to play the same important part in the classification of the tertiary strata containing lignite or brown coal as an older flora has long played in enabling us to understand the ancient coal or carboniferous formation. No small skepticism has always prevailed among botanists as to whether the leaves alone and the wood of plants could ever afford sufficient data for determining even genera and families in the vegetable kingdom. In truth, before such remains could be rendered available a new science had to be created. It was necessary to study the outlines, nervation, and microscopic structure of the leaves, with a degree of care which had never been called for in the classification of living plants, where the flower and fruit afforded characters so much more definite and satisfactory. As geologists, we cannot be too grateful to those who, instead of despairing when so difficult a task was presented to them, or being discouraged when men of the highest scientific attainments treated the fossil leaves as worthless, entered with full faith and enthusiasm into this new and unexplored field. That they should frequently have fallen into errors was unavoidable, but it is remarkable, especially if we inquire into the history of Professor Heer’s researches, how often early conjectures as to the genus and family founded on the leaves alone were afterwards confirmed when fuller information was obtained. As examples to be found on comparing Heer’s earlier and later works, I may instance the chestnut, elm, maple, cinnamon, magnolia, buckbean or Menyanthes, vine, buckthorn (Rhamnus), Andromeda and Myrica, and among the conifers Sequoia and * Taxodium.* In all these cases the plants were first recognised by their leaves, and the accuracy of the determination was afterwards confirmed when the fruit, and in some instances both fruit and flower, were found attached to the same stem as the leaves.