of Palms are found also in the Freshwater formation of Mont Martre.[1]—It is stated, that at Liblar, near Cologne, they have been seen in a vertical position.[2] Beautifully silicified stems of Palm Trees abound in Antigua, and in India, and on the banks of the Irawadi, in the kingdom of Ava.
It is not surprising to find the remains of Palms in warm latitudes where plants of this family are now indigenous, as in Antigua or India; but their occurrence in the Tertiary formations of Europe, associated with the remains of Crocodiles and Tortoises, and with marine shells, nearly allied to forms which are at present found in seas of a warm temperature, seems to indicate that the climate of 'Europe during the Tertiary period, was warmer than it is at present.
Fossil Palm leaves.
We have seven known localities of fossil Palm leaves, in
the Tertiary strata of France, Switzerland, and the Tyrol;
and among them at least three species, of flabelliform leaves,
all differing not only from that of the Chamœrops humilis,
the only native palm of the South of Europe, but also from
name of Endogenites echintus. The projecting bodies that surround it, like the foliage of a Corinthian Capital, are the persistent portions of fallen Petioles which remain adhering to the stem after the leaves themselves have fallen off. They have a dilated base embracing one-fourth or one-third of the stem; the form of A these bases, and the disposition of their woody tissue in fasciculi or fibres, refer this fossil to some arborescent Monocotyledonous Tree allied to Palms.
- ↑ Prostrate trunks of Palm trees of considerable size are found in the argillaceous marl beds above the Gypsum strata of the, Paris Basin, together with shells of Lymnea and Planorbis; as these Trunks occur here in freshwater deposites they cannot have been drifted by marine current from distant regions, but were probably natives of Europe, and of France.
- ↑ It is not shown whether these Palm trees were drifted into this position, or are still standing in the spot whereon they grew like the Cycadites and Coniferæ in the Isle of Portland.
