No. XV. GEOLOGY. 335 



occur, while the genus is now confined to Mexico and the 

 south of the United States. 



The discovery of two twigs of the Norway spruce (Pinus 

 abics) with leaves, in Grrinnell Land, is of great interest, as 

 some meagre traces of it had previously been received from 

 Spitsbergen, and the species doubtless extended, in the previous 

 period, as far as the Pole, if at that epoch land extended so far. 

 The home of this tree was evidently in the north, and in Mio- 

 cene times it doubtless had not travelled as far south as Europe, 

 its first appearance being in the Norfolk Forest-bed, and the 

 interglacial lignites of Switzerland. Though now a principal 

 constituent of our forests, its extreme northern limit is in 

 Scandinavia, in latitude 69^ N., and from thence spreads over 

 twenty-five degrees of latitude, though confined in Miocene 

 times to the Arctic Zone ; while Taxodium distichum, now 

 confined to so small an area, in Miocene times overspread 

 the northern hemisphere from central Italy to 82 N. 



The Monocotyledons, Phragmites oeningensis, Br., and 

 Car ex noursoakensis, Hr., of Grrinnell Land, Greenland, and 

 Spitsbergen, indicate damp localities with beds and sedges, 

 the former of a large size with narrow leaves and a mid-rib. 



Six families of Dicotyledons occur, the more abundant 

 species being Populus arctica, Hr., which range through 

 the whole Arctic Zone. The presence of large specimens of 

 bark from Grrinnell Land of Betula prisca prove that trees of 

 the birch attained a considerable size. Leaves and fruit of 

 Betula brongniarti, Ett., could also be identified, the species 

 agreeing with the specimens from Spitsbergen. 



The Grrinnell Land lignite indicates a thick peat moss, 

 with probably a small lake, with water lilies on the surface 

 of the water, and reeds on the edges, and birches and poplars, 

 and taxodias, on the banks, with pines, firs, spruce elms, and 

 hazel bushes on the neighbouring hills. Further research of 

 these remarkable beds would doubtless afford a rich harvest 

 of vegetable remains, and possibly those of a vertebrate 

 fauna, as well as of the insects that probably tenanted the 

 forest ; but at present the elytron of a beetle (Carabites 

 feildenianus, Hr.) attests their former presence. 



