FLORA. 195 



of which remains have been found in tho Arctic regions, 

 have been found occurring again and again in the direction 

 indicated, and this up to the Equator, if not beyond it. 

 These occur in deposits of the same antiquity everywhere, 

 and with only such modifications as can be most satisfac- 

 torily accounted for on the supposition that the first 

 appearance of the type was in the Polar regions. The 

 modifications are such as altered conditions of growth 

 might induce it being more in accordance with what is 

 known of the laws of morphology to suppose the tropical 

 form of the plant to be a modification of the polar one, 

 than the polar form of the plant to be a modification of 

 the tropical one. 



With this exposition of the matter I resume my state- 

 ments: 'The discoveries so happily brought to a focus 

 by Dr Heer/ writes Count Saporta, ' have been acquired 

 for science by the successive efforts of a multitude of 

 travellers and at a cost of unheard of fatigue. Many of 

 the treasures, after having been examined, or even after 

 having been collected and carried off by force of arms, it 

 was found necessary to abandon in whole or in part. Dr 

 Heer cites the collections of Nierstsching in the seas about 

 Behring's Straits, of Dr Armstrong, of Sir L. M'Clintock 

 at Melville Island and Prince Patrick Island, and those of 

 Dr Kane in Greenland, as having been of necessity 

 abandoned. But others have been more happy. The 

 American Arctic archipelago has furnished not only coal 

 plants, collected by Sir L. M'Clintock in Melville Island 

 and Bathurst Island, and deposited by him in the museum 

 of Dublin ; but this museum has also received from 

 Captain Maclure cones and fossil woods from Banks' Land. 

 The British Museum possesses fossil plants of a locality 

 near the Polar Circle, situated on the 65th of North lati- 

 tude, near the mouth of the Mackenzie River, collected 

 by Dr Richardson. The Alaska Territory in America, 

 which formerly belonged to Russia, has supplied its con- 

 tingent. Specimens published by Dr Heer, collected by a 

 Finlander M, Hjalmar Turuhjelin, of Helsingfors, is only 



