- 11 - As a result of excavations of the Kodor Flora over eight years, it has been possible to collect more than 10,000 specimens and to discover more than 180 species. The abundance of the fossilized remains of the Abkhazian Tertiary flora permitted the preparation of an exhibit to show the main features of its history in the D. Gulya State Museum (Sukhumi) under the title of "The Stone Annals of Abkhazian Flora". The Kodor Pontian Flora is rather peculiar; it comprises 90 new species, the holotypes of which are kept in Sukhumi Botanical Garden. This Flora is characterized by such groups of plants, as, e.g., some species which have not been known in fossilized state: Brassaiopsis, Boerlagiodendron, Pentapanax, Schefflera (Araliaceae). Great interest is also aroused by the large-leaved shrubs and, perhaps, trees of Acanthopanax mirabilis (Kolak.) Kolak. Representatives of the family Aquifoliaceae (10 species of Ilex) were also abundant. The Fagaceae were represented by evergreen and deciduous species of Castanopsis, Cyclobalanopsis, Fagus and Pasania, as well as many species of Quercus*). The Flora was also rich in Lauraceae, some of which approximate morphologically the dominants of the forests of the Macaronesian refugium of the Tertiary subtropical flora (species of Laurus, Ocotea, Persea). There is considerable interest also in some non identified species in Leguminosae s.l. with East - Asiatic and pantropical relations, such as Dalbergia, Desmodium. The deciduous species of Magnolia, especially, M.mirabilis Kolak., represented by the exceptionally preserved leaves, are also interesting. In Kodor Meotic strata the remains of the same type of Magnolia have been found. In the Kodor Flora such typically tropical and subtropical families as Styracaceae and Symplocaceae have been encountered. Recently, the presence of 5 species of Symplocos has been found out for the Sarmat, Pont and Cimmerian periods of Abkha- -------------------------------------------------- *) It should be borne in mind that Castanopsis cf.furciner- vis (Rossm.) Kraeus. et Weyl. formed the forests in the Caucasus from Oligocene to Cimmerian time.