1865.] PACKARD — ON DRIFT PHENOMENA. 441 



Sand stone which skirts the Connecticut valley, and running in a 

 direction of north-east and south-west. Lastly, the soil overlying 

 the cretaceous groups of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and other 

 States, and the great alluvial tertiary deposits which skirt the 

 eastern shores of those States, along the Atlantic borders from 

 New Jersey, southwards to Florida, comprising the whole of the 

 latter State, and thence spreading along the northern shores of 

 the Gulf of Mexico, taking in portions of Alabama, Louisiana, 

 and Texas, contains this plant in not less abundance than in 

 the more northern regions. 



The growth of the Sanguinaria in soils, covering, and at the 

 same time derived from so many distinct formations, proves in a 

 remarkable manner the natural hardihood of the plant ; but, I 

 think I am not in error in stating, that its growth is particularly 

 favored by the soils derived from the various rock formations 

 of Canada, which comprise the oldest known of our globe. 



It is a plant, like many others, which has nourished subsequently 

 to the existence of the most recent tertiary formations, as no evi- 

 dence of its presence, nor of any member of its family, the Papa- 

 veraceae, has been afforded in a fossil state. 



When we consider what small and easily destructible plants 

 those are which pertain to the order to which this plant belongs, it 

 will not surprise us that no vestiges of their former existence are 

 left on our planet. Whether they ever will be discovered remains 

 a problem which time only can solve. If my zeal for the San- 

 guinaria will not be considered as carrying me too far, I am dis- 

 posed to believe it flourished anterior to the last deposition of the 

 Tertiary strata ; but from the perishable nature of the materials 

 which belong to the poppy tribe generally, no relics have been left 

 behind. 



1 Bryanston Street, London, October 11, 1865. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE DRIFT PHENOMENA OF 

 LABRADOR. 



By A. S. Packard, Jr., M.D. 



The whole surface of Labrador has passed through a denuda- 

 tion of great extent by continental glaciers. In the southern 



