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. There are, indeed, no less than 81 species of these
Older Miocene plants which pass up into the flora of Oeningen.
This fact is important as bearing on the propriety of classing the Lower Molasse
of Switzerland as belonging to the Miocene rather than to the latter part of the
Eocene period. 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.
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