336 APPENDIX. No. XV. 



If lands formerly extended to the Pole, they were pro- 

 bably covered with these Arctic forests. The climatic dif- 

 ferences indicated by the flora of the north and west part of 

 Spitsbergen (King's Bay and Ice Fiord) to that of Disco 

 Island and Finmark are still more apparent in comparing 

 the latter with that of Grinnell Land, which indicates the 

 same conditions as Spitsbergen, which, though colder than 

 Disco, was evidently not Arctic, as the water lily proves 

 fresh water, water that must have remained open for th* 

 greater part of the year, and the Taxodium distichum can- 

 not be now got to grow unartificially in Christiania, and is 

 only maintained in northern Germaliy by cultivation. 



Existing representative Arctic plants are wanting in the 

 Grinnell Land Miocenes, but most of the genera occurring in 

 them still exist within the Arctic Zone, but all of them have 

 their present limit, at least, from twelve to fifteen degrees 

 further south, only Equisetum, Carex, and Populus ex- 

 tending beyond 70 N. : of the remainder, Pinus abies ceases 

 at 69 30' ; Pkragmites communis at 69 45' in Finmark ; 

 Corylus avellana in 67 56' ; Ulmus montana in 66 59', and 

 cultivated to nearly 70 in Norway. 



The writers are indebted to Professor Oswald Heer of 

 Zurich for the following determination of the fossil remains 

 from the Miocene shales of Grinnell Land : 



PLANTS. 



Equisetum arcticum, Hr. 

 ccstatum, Hr. 

 Torellia rigida, Hr. 



major, Hr. 



bifida, Hr. 



mossiana, Hr. 

 Thuites ehrenswardi, Hr. ? 

 Taxodium distichum miocenum. 

 Pinus feildeniana* Hr. 



polaris, Hr. 



