404 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



the hills of fossil wood in that country. And, remarkable enough, 

 that extinct Arctic Flora includes four species of the largest trees 

 in the world, of which two only survive — the Sequoia sempervircns 

 and S. gigantea of California. These prodigious trees played an 

 important part in the forests of the miocene period ; they are 

 found fossilized in Europe, Asia, and America, as well as in the 

 polar regions. 



Prof. Heer distinguishes three kinds of cypress Taxodium, 

 Thujopsis, and Glyptostrobus, of which the last two are still 

 living in Japan. The elegant twigs of the Thujopsis are identical 

 with those sometimes found embedded in amber. 



Among the deciduous trees are a number which resemble the 

 beech and chestnut of the present day. The Fagus Deucalinois, 

 which flourished beyond the 70th degree of north latitude, nearly 

 resembles our common beech — Fagus sylvatica — the leaves being 

 of the same forms and dimensions and the same venation, that, 

 were they not toothed at the extremity, it would not be easy to 

 describe the difference. The tree appears to have been widely 

 spread in the north, for its remains are found in Iceland and 

 Spitsbergen as well as in Greenland. There is even more variety 

 among the oaks ; eight species have been discovered in Greenland 

 alone, most of them with large, beautifully-formed leaves. One 

 example (Quercus Olafsoni,), which can be traced from the north 

 of Canada to Greenland and Spitzbergen, is the analogue of the 

 Q. Prinus of the United States. The plane and poplar were 

 also largely represented. The willow, on the contrary, is very 

 rare ; a surprising fact, when we remember that in the present 

 day the willow forms one-fourth of the woody vegetation of the 

 Arctic zone. The birch was abundant in Iceland ; where, also, a 

 maple and a tulip-tree have been found. The magnolia, the 

 walnut, a species of plum and two species of vine grew in Green- 

 land ; a large-leafed lime and an alder in Spitzbergen. In short j 

 Prof. Heer, with all the interesting fossils before him, sees in 

 imagination the polar regions of the miocene period covered with 

 great forests of various trees, leafy and resinous, the leaves in 

 some instances extraordinarily large, where veins and ivy inter- 

 laced their wandering branches, while numerous shrubs and 

 handsome ferns grew beneath their shade; and these forests 

 extended to the lands bordering on the Pole, if not to the very 

 Pole itself. — The Athenaeum. 



Published, Montreal, 31st December, 1868. 



