Jan. [5, 1885] 



NATURE 



'55 



the Rocky Mountains which the Association is invited to visit, 

 several Alpine species novel to European botany may be met 

 with ; and farther south the peculiar forms increase. On the 

 other hand, it is interesting to note how many Old Worl I 

 species extend their range southward even to lat. 36 or 35'. 



I have not seen the Rocky Mountains in the Dominion ; but 

 I apprehend that the aspect and character of the forest is 

 Canadian, is mainly coniferous, and composed of very few 

 species. Oaks and other cupuliferous trees, which give charac- 

 ter to the Atlantic forest, are entirely wanting, until the 

 southern confines of the region are reached in Colorado and 

 New Mexico, and there they are few and small. In these 

 southern parts there is a lesser amount of forest, but a much 

 greater diversity of genera and species, of which the most notable 

 are the Pines of the Mexican plateau type. 



The Rocky Mountains and the Coast Ranges on the Pacific 

 side so nearly approach in British America that their forests 

 ■ 1 type are gradually replaced by the more 

 peculiar western. But in the United States a broad, arid, and 

 treeless, and even truly desert region is interposed. This ha, 

 its greatest breadth and is best known where it is traversed by 

 the Central Pacific Railroad. It is an immense plain between 

 the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, largely a basin 

 with no outlet to the sea, covered with Sage-brush (i.e. peculiar 

 species of Artemisia) and other subsaline vegetation, all of grayish 

 hue ; traversed, mostly north and south, by chains of mountains, 

 which seem to be more bare than the plains, but which hold in 

 their recesses a considerable amount of forest and of other vegeta- 

 tion, mostly of Rocky Mountain 



Desolate and desert as this region appears, it is far from unin- 

 teresting to the botanist ; but I must not stop to show how. 

 Yet even the ardent botanist feels a sense of relief and exulta- 

 tion when, as he reaches the Sierra Nevada, he passes abruptly 

 into perhaps the noblest coniferous forest in the world — a forest 

 which stretches along this range and its northern continuation, 

 am I along the less elevated ranges 1 hich border the Pacific coast, 

 li hi the southern part of California to Alaska. 



So much has been said about this forest, about the two gigan- 

 tic trees which have made it famous, and its Pines and Firs 

 1 are hardly less wonderful, and which in Oregon an 1 

 British Columbia, descending into the plains, yield far more 

 timber to the acre than can be found anywhere else, and I have 

 myself discoursed upon the subject so largely on former occa- 

 that I may cut short all discourse upon the Pacific coast 

 flora and the questions it brings up. 



I note only these point . VI h lugh this flora is richer than 

 that of the Atlantic in Conifers (having almost twice as many 

 species), richer indeed than any other except that of Eastern 

 Asia, it is very meagre in deciduous trees. It has a fair num- 

 ber of Oaks, indeed, and it has a Flowering Dogw 1, even 



more showy than that which brightens our eastern woodland, 

 in spring. But altogether it possesses only one-quarter of the 

 number of species of deciduous trees that the Atlantic forest 

 has; it is even much poorer than Europe in this respect. It 

 is destitute not only of the characteristic trees of the Atlantic 

 such a, Liriodendron, Ma naolia, Asimina, Nyssa, Catalpa, 

 Sassafras, Carya, an I the arboreous Leguminosa: (Cercis ex- 

 cepted), but it also wants most of the genera which are com- 

 mon throughout all the other n irthern temperate floras, having 

 no Lindens, Elms, \: Itis, Beech, Chestnut, Horn- 



beam, and few and small A -:il Maples. The shi : 



ami herbaceous vegetation, although rich and varied, is largely 

 peculiar, especially at the south. At the north we find a fail- 

 number of spec es identical with the eastern ; but it is interest- 

 ing to remark thai this n o •", interposed between the North- 

 East Asiatic and the North-East American and with coast ap- 

 1 hose peculiar genera which, 

 as I have insisted, witness to a most remarkable connection 

 between two floras so widely sundered geographically. Some 

 of these types, indeed, occur in the intermediate region, ren- 

 the general absence the more noteworthy. And certain 

 peculiar types are represented in single identical species on 

 the coasts of Oregon and Japan, cVc. (such as Lysichiton, 

 Fatsia, Glehnia) ; yet there is less community between these 

 floras than might be expected from their geographical proximity 

 at the north. Of course the high northern flora is not here in 

 view. 



Now if, as I have maintained, the eastern side of North 

 America and the eastern side of Northern Asia are the favoured 

 heirs of the old boreal flora, and if I have plau-ibly explained 



how Europe lost so much of its portion of a common inherit- 

 ance, it only remains to consider how the western side of 

 North America lost so much more. For that the missing types 

 once existed there, as well as in Europe, has already been in- 

 dicated in the few fossil explorations that have been mode. 

 They have brought to light Magnolias, Elm , Beeches, Chest- 

 nut, a Liquidambar, &c. And living witnesses remain in the 

 two Sequoias of California, whose ancestors, along with Taxo- 

 dium, which is similarly preserved on the Atlantic side, appear 

 to have formed no small part of the Miocene flora of the Arctic 

 regions. 



Several causes may have conspired in the destruction ; — 

 climatic differences between the two sides of the continent, such 

 as must early have been established (and we kn >w that a differ- 

 ence no greater than the present would be effective); geogra- 

 phical configuration, probably confining the migration to and fro 

 to a long and narr iw tract, little wider, perhaps, than that to 

 which it is now restricted ; the tremendous outpouring of lava 

 and volcanic ashes just anterior to the Glacial period, by which 

 a large part of the region was thickly covered ; and, at length, 

 competition from the Mexican plateau vegetation, — a vegetation 

 beyond the reach of general glacial movement from the north, 

 and climatically well adapted to the south-western portion of 

 the United States. 



It is now becoming obvious that the Mexican plateau vegeta- 

 tion is the proximate source of most of the peculiar elements 

 of the Californian flora, as also of the southern Rocky Moun- 

 tain region and of the Great Basin bet ■. een ; and that these 

 plants from the south have competed with those from the north 

 on the eastward plains and prairies. It is from this source 

 that are derived not only our Cactese but our Mimosese, our 

 Daleas and Petalostemons, our numerous and varied Onagracese, 

 our Loasacere, a large part of our Compositse, especially the 

 Eupatoriaceae, Helianthoideae, Helenioidese, and Mutisiaceje, 

 which are so characteristic of the country, the Asclepiadeae, the 

 very numerous Polemoniacerc, Hydrophyllacese, Eriogonese, and 

 the like. 



I had formerly recognised this element in our North Ameri- 

 can flora, but I have only recently come to apprehend its full 

 significance. With increasing knowledge we may in a good 

 measure discriminate between the descendants of the ancient 

 northern flora and those which come from the highlands of the 

 south-west. 



BRYX MAWR COLLEGE 

 n'HIS College is an Institution for Women, founded by the 

 late Dr. Joseph W. Taylor : the following account of its 

 foundation and objects, from the Philadelphia /,,,/■,>; has been 

 kindly forwarded to us by Prof. Sylvester. 



The work on the buildings and other preparations for the 

 opening of the College are being pushed forward as expe- 

 ditiously as possible, so that everything will be ready by 

 Tune next. This new educational institution, it will be remem- 

 bered, was founded by the late Joseph W. Taylor, M.D., a 

 prominent member of the Society of Friends, of Burlington, 

 N.J., who bought the land — about thirty-two acres — and began 

 the erection of the college building, in 1879. He died in 

 fanuary, 18S0, leaving an endowment of 800,000 dols. for the 

 continuance of the work he had begun — the erection and starting 

 of a college for women. 



By the terms of the will of the founder, the Trustees are 

 members of the Society of Friends, but the students may be of 

 any denomination, and their religious belief is to be respected. 

 It was part of the purpose of Dr. Taylor to give to women of 

 intelligence and refinement the best opportunities for culture, 

 combined with Christian influences and social amenities. 

 Scholars under sixteen years will be ineligible for admission. 

 The Board of Trustees consists of: President — Francis T. King, 

 of Baltimore, Md. ; Charles S. Taylor, Burlington, N.J. ; 

 James C. Thomas, Baltimore. Md. ; James E. khoades, Phila- 

 delphia ; lames Whitall, Philo lelphia : John B Garrett, Bryn 

 Mawr, Penn. : Charles Harteshorne, Philadelphia; David Scull, 

 Jr., Philadelphia; William R. I hurston, New York City; 

 Albert K. Smiley, Lake Mohonk, N.V. ; Francis R. Cope, 

 Philadelphia ; Philip C. Garrett, Philadelphia, and Edward 

 P.ittle, Philadelphia. 



As Dr. 1 aylor did not wish the college named after him, the 

 Trustees have given the title of Tavlor Hall to the main building, 

 in commemoration of his munificent bequest. This building. 



