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From the latter no less than 193 species of plants have been obtained by the exertions of MM. Heer and Gaudin, and they are considered to afford a true type of the vegetation of the Lower Miocene formations of Switzerland a vegetation departing farther in its character from that now flourishing in Europe than any of the higher members of the series before alluded to, and yet displaying so much affinity to the flora of Oeningen as to make it natural for the botanist to refer the whole to one and the same Miocene period.
Next in number, says Heer, to these American forms at Oeningen the European genera preponderate, the Asiatic ranking in the third, the African in the fourth, and the Australian in the fifth degree.
It was before stated that the Miocene formation of Switzerland consisted of, first, the upper fresh-water molasse, comprising the lacustrine marls of Oeningen; secondly, the marine molasse, corresponding in age to the faluns of Touraine; and thirdly, the lower fresh-water molasse. Some of the beds of the marine or middle series reach a height of 2470 feet above the sea.
And what is worthy of notice, some of these fossils so closely allied to living plants occur not only in the Upper, but even some few of them as far back in time as the Lower Miocene formations of Switzerland and Germany, which are probably as distant from the Upper Miocene or Oeningen beds as are the latter from our own era.
It has yielded specimens of about a thousand species of Tertiary insects. Near the large ancient lake, of which it marks the site, was a volcano, and the fine ash yielded from the cone seems to have buried myriads of insects in the water. At Oeningen a similar lake-deposit has, although only a few feet thick, yielded 900 species of insects.
The Oeningen strata consist of a series of marls and limestones, many of them thinly laminated, and which appear to have slowly accumulated in a lake probably fed by springs holding carbonate of lime in solution.
No less than 844 species are reckoned by Heer from the Oeningen beds alone, the number of specimens which he has examined being 5080. The entire list of Swiss species from the Upper and Lower Miocene together amount to 1322.
There are, indeed, so many types among the fossils, both specific and generic, which have a wide range through the whole of the Molasse, that a unity of character is thereby stamped on the whole flora, in spite of the contrast between the plants of the uppermost and lowest formations, or between Oeningen and Monod.
Proportion of recent Species of Shells. faluns more ancient than the Suffolk Crag. Upper Miocene of Bordeaux and the South of France. Upper Miocene of Oeningen, in Switzerland. Plants of the Upper Fresh-water Molasse. Fossil Fruit and Flowers as well as Leaves. Insects of the Upper Molasse. Middle or Marine Molasse of Switzerland. Upper Miocene Beds of the Bolderberg, in Belgium. Vienna Basin.
Vast Tertiary Periods during which this Extinction has been going on in the Fauna and Flora now existing. Genealogical Bond between Miocene and Recent Plants and Insects. Fossils of Oeningen. Species of Insects in Britain and North America represented by distinct Varieties. Falconer's Monograph on living and fossil Elephants. Fossil Species and Genera of the Horse Tribe in North and South America.
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