The Origin of our British Flora 



of Greenland and North America. They did not reach 

 Europe until the Eocene, but appear to have afterwards 

 enjoyed a European life, for in the Miocene they are 

 important trees from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, 

 and from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. They were 

 driven south in the Pliocene age, and have now retreated 

 to the shores of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, where 

 they still live in some districts that have from 50 to 80 

 inches of annual rainfall. Their western boundary now 

 is the dry climate of the Persian and Arabian desert, and 

 to the north the Himalayas and other great mountain- 

 ranges,^^ 



This is rather a triumph for the botany of to-day. 

 The cinnamon has been traced from Ceylon to Green- 

 land and during the whole interval of time that has 

 elapsed from the first Cretaceous deposits to our own 

 days ! 



1 Laurent. ^ Engler. ^ Djgig, 4 WiUkomm. 



* Schulz. ^ Heering, Engler, Keller. ^ Dengler, Birger. 



^ Smith, R. and W. G., Lewis, Smith and Lewis, Smith and Rankin, Moss. 

 ^ Lewis. ^° Andersson. i^ Graebner. ^^ Hoek. ^^ Slant. 



235 



