Note 44 — PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. (continued 3)

The following interesting observations on the Œningen formation are by Professor Agassiz, who refers it to the Miocene not to the Pliocene class:— mdash;"This picture would be incomplete did I not institute a farther comparison between the present vegetation of those regions and the fossil plants of modern geological epochs. If we compare, namely, the Tertiary fossil plants of Europe with those living on the spot now, we shall be struck with the differences of about the same value as those already mentioned between the eastern and western coasts of the continents under the same latitudes. Compare, for instance, a list of the fossil trees and shrubs from Œningen, with a catalogue of trees and shrubs of the eastern and western coasts, both of Europe, Asia, and North America, and it will be seen that the differences they exhibit scarcely go beyond those shewn by these different Floræ under the same latitudes. But what is quite extraordinary and unexpected is the fact, that the European fossil plants of that locality resemble more closely the trees and shrubs which grow at present in the eastern parts of North America, than those of any other part of the world; thus, allowing us to express correctly the differences already mentioned between the vegetation of the eastern and western coasts of the continents, by saying that the present eastern American flora, and I may add, the fauna also,[A] and probably also that of eastern Asia, have a more ancient character than those of Europe and of western North America. The plants, especially the trees and shrubs growing in our days in this country and in Japan, are, as it were, old fashioned; they bear the mark of former ages—a peculiarity which agrees with the general aspect of North America; the geological structure of which indicates that this region was a large continent long before the extensive tracts of land had been lifted above the level of the sea in any other part of the world.