112 MR. A. W, WATERS ON A CHANGE IN 



only to feed upon genera of herbaceous plants of which no 

 impressions have yet been discovered, the imperfection of 

 the record of this period is shown. This flora has its 

 present parallel in Japan, the Southern United States, and 

 Sicily. 



Besides the general comparison of the vegetation, we can 

 arrive at the same conclusion with regard to the greater 

 warmth by other means : — in the first place, by the greater 

 number of species ; then by the larger proportion of trees, 

 by the larger number of evergreen species, and, lastly, 

 by the relative time of appearance of the foliage and 

 blossoms ; for in the warmer regions there is less interval 

 than in colder comitries. The fossil floras, as also the 

 faunas, in England, Italy, Styria, Iceland, Greenland, and 

 Spitzbergen all confirm the conclusions drawn in Switzer- 

 land. 



We could scarcely expect to have so complete a record 

 from the Arctic regions ; but what we have still bears out 

 the same conclusion. The known living Arctic flora a few 

 years ago only included 762 species; but in these regions* 

 356 Miocene species have already been determined from 

 latitude 70^-77° in Spitzbergen and Greenland, and include 

 Taxodium distichum (swamp-cypress of Texas), Sequoia 

 allied to S. Wellingtonia , Large-leaved Birch, Lime, Oak, 

 Beech, Plane, and even Magnolia, at Cape Lyell, Spitzbergen; 

 so that Prof. Heer, by comparison of the localities of these 

 trees says that Waisal, opposite Disco, lat. 70° N., Greenland, 

 had a temperature 30° F. warmer than at present, and the 

 nearest living representatives are found io°-2o° further 

 south. The last Arctic Expedition found Miocene coal at 

 81° ; but, as far as I am aware, no detailed description of the 

 flora has been published. Fossil floras of the Cretaceous, 

 Jurassic, and Carboniferous periods have also been disco- 



* "Flora fossilis Arctioa,' vol. iv. (Zurich, 1877). 



