FLORA OF THE KURILE ISLANDS. 



207 



have cruised among them, all the islands lying north of Urup are perpetually capped with suow. 

 Their vec^etation also indicates decidedly their sub-arctic character. , , , . 



According to Prof. J. Milne,i who has visited the Kurile islands twice since LS78, the whole chain 

 is of volcank! origin. By him and by Captain Snow, fifty-two well-defined volcanic cones were rec- 

 ognized, of which seventeen were active. All these active volcanoes, with the exception of one or 

 two are contined to the northern Kuriles, where even those which are apparently extinct still pre- 

 serve their symmetrical slopes, indicating that they have suffered but little from denudation since they 

 were first built up. Professor Milne failed to discover any trace of stratified rocks m the northern 

 crroup. From these observations he concludes that the formation of the northern Kuriles must be 

 comparatively recent ; and, in fact, some of them are now actively forming. ^ , . , 



On the other hand, the volcanoes of Kunashiri and Etorofu are mostly rounded m shape and 

 deeply cut by valleys. The neighboring island of Urup presents appearances similar to these two. 

 Alono- the coasts of these islands, Professor Milne noticed the existence of stratified rocks and ter- 

 race formation. These facts show that they are older than the other members of the Kurile group, 

 and formed " the first of a series of stepping stones, which connects Japan, by means ol Kamtschatka, 

 with the remainder of Asia." Accepting Croll's theory as true, the presence of marine terraces in 

 the southern Kuriles forms good evidence of their existence before the Glacial Epoch. 



Character of the Kouile Flora and its Relations to the Flora of the 



Neighboring Countries. 

 According to our present knowledge, the number of orders, genera and species in the Kurile flora, 

 under each of the greater divisions of the vegetable kingdom, is as follows :— 



Orders. Genera. Species. 



21 69 121 



14 58 100 



6 12 19 



Polypetalte. 

 Gamopetalse. 

 Monochlamydese. 

 Dicotyledons. 

 Monocotyledons. 

 Angiospermse. 

 Gymnospermse. 

 Phanerogamas. 



Cryptogamte (Vascul.) 



Total. 53 187 317 



Among the orders, those which are comparatively rich in genera and species stand in the following 

 sequence : — 



Compositee, with 15 genera. Composite, with 30 species, 



r Rosacea, " 12 " Rosaceas, "23 " 



iLiliaceie, " 12 " Gramineie, " 17 " 



GramineiB, " H " Ericaceae, " 16 " 



C Ranunculacec^, '« 8 " . C CaryophylUicese, " 15 " 



( Ericaceae, » 8 " I Liliacese, " 15 " 



fCruciferaj, " 7 " Scrophulariacere, " U " 



I Umbellifeiffi, " 7 " Ranunculaceie, " 13 " 



■Milne, J. ; A cruise among tl>e volcanoes of the Kurile 1881, p. 53). Notes on the Kurile Islands which ap- 



Islands (Geological Magazine, 1879, p. 337). The Ku- peared in the Japan Gazette in the spruig of I*'*';; ("°' 



rile Islands (Geol. Mag., 1880, p. 91). Evidences of the seen; extracts from it in Nature, 188o, pp. 135 and .OJ). 



Glacial Period in Japan (Trans. Asiatic Soc. of Japan, 



