But the
evolution of the Angiosperms is a recent and immature study, and
we will be content with a few reflections on the struggle of the
various types of trees in the changing conditions of the
Tertiary, the development of the grasses, and the evolution of
the flower. In other words, we will be content to ask how the
modern landscape obtained its general vegetal features.
Broadly speaking, the vegetation of the first part of the
Tertiary Era was a mixture of sub-tropical and temperate forms, a
confused mass of Ferns, Conifers, Ginkgoales, Monocotyledons, and
Dicotyledons. Here is a casual list of plants that then grew in
the latitude of London and Paris: the palm, magnolia, myrtle,
Banksia, vine, fig, aralea, sequoia, eucalyptus, cinnamon tree,
cactus, agave, tulip tree, apple, plum, bamboo, almond, plane,
maple, willow, oak, evergreen oak, laurel, beech, cedar, etc. The
landscape must have been extraordinarily varied and beautiful and
rich. To one botanist it suggests Malaysia, to another India, to
another Australia.
It is really the last gathering of the plants, before the great
dispersion. Then the cold creeps slowly down from the Arctic
regions, and begins to reduce the variety.
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