1 32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



the Mediterranean flora of Europe had little or nothing in common 

 with America. Having thus given a cursory view of the physical 

 geography of plants in Britain, Mr Shaw then attempted to give 

 the geological history of their introduction. He showed that 

 there must have been a land connection between Europe and 

 America at some date or dates during the glacial epoch. The 

 community of species could not be well referred to periods before 

 or after that great age; for how otherwise could we understand 

 why the mountains and plams alike of Northern and Central 

 Europe, and the Alps and other mountain systems of the South, 

 should have species in common with North America? When the ■ 

 ice had retreated from Britain, and the land had risen after the 

 glacial epoch, so as to be connected with the continent, the Arctic 

 and Alpine, the intermediate or German floras, and lastly, when 

 the climate became very much warmer than at present, the 

 Mediterranean flora entered. This last had travelled considerably 

 to the north, for we find traces of it in the middle regions of Scot- 

 land. The climate of Britain was such then, that trees grew at a 

 greater elevation by 1200 feet than they do at the present time, 

 as is indicated by the remains of trees found in bogs on our 

 mountains. 



II. — On the Natural History of some of our Scottish Oil Shales. 

 By Mr John Young. 



I have thought that a few remarks upon the Natural History 

 of our Parafiin Oil Shales, illustrated by specimens, might be 

 of some interest to members of this society, especially as these 

 same shales are at present exciting, among certain classes of our 

 commercial men, a considerable degree of attention, and are likely 

 to prove of economic value to this country in the future. 



Ever since the discovery of those rich paraffin products in the 

 Boghead cannel coal, or Torbanehill mineral, certain parties have 

 been investigating our other cannel coals for the purpose of obtain- 

 ing similar products; but the present restrictions of Mr James 

 Young's patent prevents those parties from distilling from these 

 cannel coals. They therefore were driven to investigate some of 

 the highly carbonaceous shales for these paraffin oils, to which Mr 

 Young's patent did not apply. 



The result of these investigations has led to the discovery of the 

 very interesting fact that there are certain beds of strata in our 



