We have seen that most of the fossil shells of the Older Pliocene strata of Suffolk which are of recent species are identical with testacea now living in British seas, yet some of them belong to Mediterranean species, and a few even of the genera are those of warmer climates. We might therefore expect, in studying the fossils of corresponding age in countries bordering the Mediterranean, to find among them some species and genera of warmer latitudes. Accordingly, in the marls belonging to this period at Asti, Parma, Sienna, and parts of the Tuscan and Roman territories, we observe the genera _Conus, Cypræa, Strombus, Pyrula, Mitra, Fasciolaria, Sigaretus, Delphinula, Ancillaria, Oliva, Terebellum, Terebra, Perna, Plicatula,_ and _Corbis_, some characteristic of tropical seas, others represented by species more numerous or of larger size than those now proper to the Mediterranean. Older Pliocene Flora of Italy.—I have already alluded to the Newer Pliocene deposits of the Upper Val d’Arno above Florence, and stated that below those sands and conglomerates, containing the remains of the _Elephas meridionalis_ and other associated quadrupeds, lie an older horizontal and conformable series of beds, which may be classed as Older Pliocene. They consist of blue clays with some subordinate layers of lignite, and exhibit a richer flora than the overlying Newer Pliocene beds, and one receding farther from the existing vegetation of Europe. They also comprise more species common to the antecedent Miocene period. Among the genera of flowering plants, M. Gaudin enumerates pine, oak, evergreen oak, plum, plane, alder, elm, fig, laurel, maple, walnut, birch, buckthorn, hickory, sumach, sarsaparilla, sassafras, cinnamon, Glyptostrobus, Taxodium, Sequoia, Persea, Oreodaphne (Fig. 134), Cassia, and Psoralea, and some others. This assemblage of plants indicates a warm climate, but not so subtropical an one as that of the Upper Miocene period, which will presently be considered. Fig. 134: Creodaphne Heerii. Fig. 135: Liquidambar europæum, var. trilobatum Fig. 134: _Creodaphne Heerii_. Leaf[5] Fig. 135: _Liquidambar europæum_, var. _trilobatum_, A. Br. (sometimes four-lobed, and more commonly five-lobed). _a._ Leaf. _b._ Part of same. _c._ Fruit. _d._ Seed Œningen.