Zs. P. Komáromy szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 13. 1979 (Budapest, 1979)

Hably, Lilla: Climatic changes in the area of Central Paratethys during the Tertiary (based on the macroflora)

requirements. It is of expressly xerophilous element, i.e. not aquatic, but of medium water requirement and is characteristic of the flora of hilly regions. This supports ANDRLÁNSZKY's supposition about dry climatic conditions, which is proved also by the great number of Dryophyllum furcinerve. This species figures under different names in the papers of ANDREANSZKY, revised by RÜFFLE MÜLLE R-STOLL and LIT KE (1976). In Bulgaria it is mentioned by PALAMAREV from the Lower Oligocène as a characteristic species as Castanopsis furcinervis. (RÜFFLE-MÜ

LLER STOLL-LTTKE 1976).iThe Dryophyllum furcinerve prevailing in the Bulgarian Middle Oligocène (PALAMARE

V 1967) indicate xerophillous, mezoxerophillous flora. PETRESCU (MÉSZÁROS-PETRESCU 1967) has published a similar flora to Tard Clay from the Lower Oligocène of Mera (Romanian) with Zizyphus zizyphoides

, Laurus and Castanopsis furcinervis ^

Dryophyllum furcinerve (E^LTTLE-MULLER-STOLL-LTTKE 1976). The plants seem to indicate that in the Middle Oligocène the climate grew more and more arid proceding from the North to the South. In the Balkans there are no Arctotertiary elements at all in the Middle Oligocène whereas they are present in Bohemia and Hungary even though in lesser number than in other places. A decisive change in the flora occurred in the northern part of the Central Europe in the Egerian (Upper Oligocène). It is in this age that the Arctotertiary flora begins to dominate both in the area of the Czech Massivum, and on the territory of Hungary. In the Balkans this takes place only later; here they appear in the Lower Miocene and become prevalent in the Sarmatian. (PANTIC 1967)- In the Czech Egerian two levels have been set up by KNOBLOCH (KNOBLOCH et al. 1975) on the basis of the flora: one the holotype locality of which is Markvartice, in the Laurophyllum medimontanumPlatanus neptuni Acer palaeosacharinum zone. In addition to the name giving species Comptonia acutiloba

, Libocedrites salicornioides

, Engelhardtia d

étecta, Ulmus fischeri are to be found. The other also Egerian zone is the Cystoseirites partschiiCunninghamia miocenicaPlatanus neptuni

, whose holotype locality is Krumvir. It should be noted that in both Egerian flora zones Platanus neptuni is present. In Hungary it is known from the Egerian only of the Wind brickyard. Regarding Egerian florae in this country it can be stated that as in Bohemia, in Hungary a great change occurred the course of which the Paleotropical elements were supressed by the Arctotertiary flora in the Egerian. It would be untimely to set up zone-marking species for the Hungarian Egerian, but on the basis of the above findings it seems almost certain that they do not correspond to the Czech zone-marking species. The climate, however, would have been similar in the two areas and the difference in species components can be explained by other eucological and phytogeographical reasons. According to MAI (1967) it was in the Egerian that the Arctotertiary flora reached the stage of development when major connections were formed from Eastern Europe to Siberia. MAI defines 12 biostratigraphical zones on the basis of macroflorae especially of seed and fruit collections. In the first zone dating from Upper Oligocène, in addition to other plants, Libocedrites salicornioides

, Comptonia are to be found similarly in the Czech Upper Oligocène. Also to be found are Taxodium

, Sequoia which are also dominating in the Hungarian Egerian. At the time of transition from Upper Oligocène to Lower Miocene, still in the Egerian, a new flora, characterized by laurophillous elements takes over. On the basis of seeds and fruits MAI establishes Mastixioidea so the climatologi-