6 /. ' . Ebsiinci Floras of North Amen , iea i 



Journal of Science (vol. xxviii., p. 85), is published a letter 

 from Prof. Beer upon these plants, of which sketches had been 



■ him by Mr. Lesquereux. In these notes the extinct flora 

 of Vancouver's Island and Bellingham Bay are considered of 

 the same age, and brought still nearer the Miocene of Europe ; 

 quite a number of species being regarded as identical with 

 those fonnd at < >eningen, &c. 



Since that time a collection of fossil plants made by Dr. C. 

 B. Wood, at Nanaimo, V. I., and at Buzzard's Inlet, British 

 Columbia, was sent by Dr. Hooker to Prof. Heer for examina- 

 tion. From the coal mine at Nanaimo but a Bingle species of 

 this collection was obtained; a conifer, considered by Prof. 

 Beer as identical with Sequoia Langsdorfi, Br. s-j ... a spec 

 common in the Miocene of Europe. From these facts it will 

 ii that the modern aspeel of the fossil flora of Van- 

 couver's Island has produced the same misapprehensions as the 

 ( 'retaceous flora of Nebraska. This, however, Is not to be won- 

 dered at. and conveys no reproach to the eminent scientific 



i who have been misled by it. The identification of Bpecies 

 by few ami fragmentary specimens, or >till worse by sketcl 

 ie :i difficult and hazardous task for any one to perform : and in 



ird to the generic relations of the plants described, it can 



only be -aid that previous to the discovery of such i lern 



genera ;i- Liriodendron, Magnolia, Sassafras, &c, in the On 



oua rocks, they were naturally regarded as belonging to 

 the present or Tertiary flora. It is also true thai the flora of 

 the Cretaceous period in the old World has until recently b 

 considered, from the number of Oycads it includes, as a con- 

 tinuation of the Jurassic flora; and it contain- East Indian 

 forms, none of which have as yel been discovered on this con- 

 tinent. There i- no more doubt, however, that the plant-bear 

 ing strata of Vancouver's bland are Cretaceous, than in regard 

 i«. those of Nebraska. A ^ery large number of Cretaceous 



Husks have been collected, both in the overlying beds ami 

 ih"-e containing the plpnts, as was stated by the writer in 



