194 APPENDIX. 



The extremity of a branch, with four small leaves of a 

 Quercus, were discovered along with the leaf of Vacciniwn 

 Myrtillm, on an ice island, in the centre of Hudson's Strait. 

 These leaves have the most entire resemblance to those of 

 our Quercus Robur and sessiliflora^ but being without either 

 flower or acorns, it would be impossible to say to which of 

 these two species it had belonged. To one of them, how- 

 ever, I think it may, with tolerable certainty, be said that 

 they do belong. I have in vain endeavoured to discover 

 any resemblance between them and the foliage of any Ame- 

 rican oak in my collection ; nor are either of the common 

 European oaks mentioned as natives of the American Con- 

 tinent. In a pamphlet that Mr. Winch has published upon 

 the geographical distribution of plants, it is stated that the 

 river Dal, in Sweden, in latitude 60° SO" North, and Christi- 

 ana, in Norway, in lat. 59° 56", are the northern limits of 

 the growth of oak in Europe. The same author observes, 

 that the oaks which he noticed on the banks of the Gotha, 

 in lat. 58°, were of a very diminutive size. The oak is ex- 

 cluded from the Flora Lapponicat nor does it grow in Ice- 

 land. On the eastern limits of Siberia, however, it is found ; 

 but I shall give what is stated on this subject in the Flora 

 Sibirica of Gmelin (v. 1. p. 150,) in that author's own words. 

 " Audivi nasci in orientali Arguni fluvii ripa, viginti circiter 

 leucas a fluvio, in Sinicis finibus, quo ire non licuit. Dicunt 

 etiam ad Anurem fluvium copiose nasci. Aliis locis in Sibiria 

 hsec arbor non occurrit, etsi in Casanensi regno frequen- 

 tissima, quin etiam in tola fere Russia non raro inventu 

 est." 



