■548 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



many southern species attaining their extreme northern limit in the 

 island. Water plays an important part in determining the character of 

 the flora, xerophilous species forming the basis of the vegetation, while 

 many hygrophilous species common in neighbouring regions are absent 

 or rare in Belle Isle. The physical character of the soil exercises a more 

 marked effect on the flora than the chemical character. A comparison 

 of the flora with that of other Breton islands suggests their separation 

 from neighbouring continents at an epoch prior to that of the formation 

 of the Gulf -stream. 



Flora of the Philippine Islands.*— E. D. Merrill gives notes on 

 a number of new or otherwise noteworthy seed-plants recently collected 

 by him in these islands. He also enumerates the plants of American 

 origin which are now found in the islands. Some of these of economic 

 or ornamental value have been purposely introduced ; others are the 

 result of accident. The latter are for the most part generally dis- 

 tributed as weeds in cultivated fields. Many of those of economic 

 importance seem to have been introduced in very early times ; both 

 Mercado and Camell at the beginning of the eighteenth century 

 enumerate many species of American origin. Nearly all the American 

 species of economic importance, and a very large percentage of those 

 accidentally introduced and now found in the islands, have been gene- 

 rally distributed throughout the tropics of the East by the same 

 agencies by which they were introduced into this Archipelago ; and at 

 the present time we find in other countries of the East, comparatively 

 few of the tropical American species which are not also found in the 

 Philippines. These islands must be considered as the early distributing 

 point of American species in the East. 



Antarctic Fossil Flora.f— A. G. Nathorst gives an account of the 

 fossil plants collected in the Swedish Antarctic expedition. The most 

 interesting is the Jurassic flora found by J. G. Andersson in Hope Bay, 

 at latitude 63° 15' S., longitude 57° W. The plants were found in a black 

 schist which formed part of an ancient mountain chain ; the flora is 

 very rich in species, and the external leaf -form is well preserved. Equi- 

 setineae are represented by a species very near Equisetum columnare 

 Brongn., and the Hydropteridese by a Sagenopteris, which is perhaps 

 identical with S. PhiUipsi Brongn. Ferns are abundant and belong to 

 a large number of genera, and include several species of Cladophlebis, 

 Todites Williamsoni, Scleropteris, Stachijpteris, Thinnfeldia indica, Pacliy- 

 pteris, and Sphenopteris. Among the Cycadophytes are several species 

 of Otozamites, Williamsonia, large leaves suggesting Nilssonia tenui- 

 nervis, and a magnificent Pterophyllum of the same type as the Indian 

 Pt. Morrisianum. Among the Coniferae the most interesting are cone- 

 scales of Araucarites cutchmsis ; leafy branches of conifers of different 

 types were common. This Jurassic flora as a whole resembles on the 

 one hand the Jurassic flora of Europe, and on the other the flora of 

 upper Gondwana in India. In richness of species it far surpasses the 

 Jurassic floras previously known from South America. 



* Department of the Interior, Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila (1904) 

 3 ; PP- t Comptes lUndus, cxxxviii. (1904) pp. 1447-50. 



