1894. ^^-E FOSSIL PLANTS OF CANADA. i8i 



interior region of the Continent. It probably coincides with the 

 Patoot flora of Greenland. 



Later than this, and in its floral character assimilated rather to 

 the Eocene of other countries, we have the Laramie series proper, in- 

 dicating a period in which the great interior plateau east of the Rocky 

 Mountains had ceased to be an open sea, and had been reduced to 

 the condition of swamps and lakes, the former holding a rich flora of 

 temperate aspect, even as far north as Alaska and Greenland. The 

 Laramie flora has been recognised locally on the west coast as well, 

 but its greatest areas are in the interior plains, where it undoubtedly 

 overlies the Fox Hill or Danien beds. It is, perhaps, most remark- 

 able for its richness in coniferous trees, Taxites, Sequoia, Thuia, etc., 

 and for the great development of the genus Platanus, as well as for 

 its containing some ferns of modern species (Onoclea sensibilis, Davallia 

 termifolia). For details of this flora the reader is referred to Trans. 

 Roy. Soc. Canada, 1885, part iv., p. 16; 1886, part iv., p. 19; 1887, 

 part iv., p. 31 ; i88g, part iv., p. 69. 



The Miocene Tertiary is represented on the Canadian plains only 

 by the gravels of the Cypress Hills, holding mammalian bones 

 referred to the White River series ; but on the Similkameen River 

 and elsewhere in the interior of British Columbia there are beds 

 holding an interesting insect fauna and a number of fossil plants. 

 Among the latter are several swamp and aquatic species, Equisetuin, 

 Azollophyllum, etc., and conifers of the genera Pinus, Taxodium, 

 Glyptostrohiis, and Salishuvia, along with species of Myrica, Populiis, 

 Salix, Alnites, Accrites, Carpinus, Nelumhmm, etc. The climate 

 evidenced by these plants is still temperate, but probably scarcely, 

 if at all, warmer than that of the coast of British Columbia at 

 present. {Op. cit., 1890, part iv., p. 76.) 



It would thus appear that, while we have no evidence of a tropical 

 climate in Northern Canada in the Cretaceous or Cainozoic periods, 

 the successive floras point to equable and warm temperate conditions 

 extending very far northward, and gradually passing in time into 

 those of the colder Miocene and Pliocene. We can also to some 

 extent correlate these climatal conditions with the geographical 

 features ot the several periods and with the contemporary animal 

 remains. 



I may add that the validity of such deductions does not altogether 

 depend on the accuracy of the reference of particular species to exist- 

 ing genera. In many cases there can be no doubt of this, as in the 

 species of Liriodendvon, Sassafras, Platanus, Sequoia, and Salishuvia, and 

 especially in the case of all those forms of which seed or fruit has 

 been procured ; but even where the naming may be inaccurate or 

 where the number of species has been unduly multiplied, the deduc- 

 tions as to climate may hold good, though not perhaps to the extent 

 of enabling us to fix a definite thermometrical mean temperature. 



As to geological age, the primary requisite is that in some of 



