In the same plant-bearing deposits of the Lower Molasse in Switzerland leaves have been found which have been ascribed to the order Proteaceæ already spoken of as well represented in the Œningen beds (see p. 221). The Proteas and other plants of this family now flourish at the Cape of Good Hope; while the Banksias, and a set of genera distinct from those of Africa, grow most luxuriantly in the southern and temperate parts of Australia. They were probably inhabitants, says Heer, of dry hilly ground, and the stiff leathery character of their leaves must have been favourable to their preservation, allowing them to float on a river for great distances without being injured, and then to sink, when water-logged, to the bottom. It has been objected that the fruit of the Proteaceæ is of so tough and enduring a texture that it ought to have been more commonly met with; but in the first place we must not forget the numerous cones found in the Eocene strata of Sheppey, which all admit to be proteaceous and to belong to at least two species (see p. 222). Secondly, besides the fruit of Hakea before mentioned (p. 221), Heer found associated with fossil leaves, having the exact form and nervation of Banksia, fruit precisely such as may have come from a cone of that plant, and lately he has received another similar fruit from the Lower Miocene strata of Lucerne. They may have fallen out of a decayed cone in the same way as often happens to the seeds of the spruce fir, _Pinus abies,_ found scattered over the ground in our woods. It is a known fact that among the living Proteaceæ the cones are very firmly attached to the branches, so that the seeds drop out without the cone itself falling to the ground, and this may perhaps be the reason why, in some instances in which fossil seeds have been found, no traces of the cone have been observed. Fig. 152: Fruit of fossil Banksia and leaf of Banksia. Fig. 153: Sequoia Langsdorfii. Among the Coniferæ the Sequoia here figured is common at Rivaz, and is one of the most universal plants in the Lowest Miocene of Switzerland, while it also characterises the Miocene Brown Coals of Germany and certain beds of the Val d’Arno, which I have called Older Pliocene, p. 208. Fig. 154: Lastræa stiriaca. Among the ferns met with in profusion at Monod is the _ Lastræa stiriaca,_ Unger, which has a wide range in the Miocene period from strata of the age of Œningen to the lowest part of the Swiss Molasse. In some specimens, as shown in Fig. 154, the fructification is distinctly seen. Among the laurels several species of _Cinnamomum_ are very conspicuous. Besides the _C. polymorphum,_ before figured, p. 219, another species also ranges from the Lower to the Upper Molasse of Switzerland, and is very characteristic of different deposits of Brown Coal in Germany. It has been called _Cinnamomum Rossmässleri_ by Heer (see Fig. 155). The leaves are easily recognised as having two side veins, which run up uninterruptedly to their point.