Dec. 



1885J 



NA TURE 



207 



which our Nival flora has in common with the Arctic 

 zone. 



(7) This Arctic flora probably arose on the mountains 

 of the Arctic zone, and stood in the same relation, in the 

 Miocene period, to the flora of the Arctic lowland as 

 the present Alpine flora to the flora of the Swiss low- 

 land. 



(8) The Miocene Arctic flora advanced to Europe in 

 the Tertiary period, and the European Tertiary flora 

 received from it the types which now characterise the 

 temperate zone, viz. the pine-woods and foliage-trees 

 with deciduous leaves. In course of time these domin- 

 ated more and more over the tropical and sub-tropical 

 forms, which were the original occupiers of these regions, 

 and became the mother-plants of a portion of the present 

 lowland flora. 



(9) In the Glacial period the mountain plants of the 

 Arctic zone descended into the lowland, and spread 

 southwards with the glaciers. As in the Tertiary period 

 the trees and bushes with deciduous foliage wandered 

 southwards, so in the Glacial period did the mountain 

 plants ; and that this migration took place radially from 

 the north is proved by the fact that not only in the snow 

 region of our Alps nearly the half of the plant species 

 consists of Arctic species, but also the American moun- 

 tains, and on the other side the Altai, and even the 

 Himalaya, have quite a number of such Arctic species, 

 and have them in common with the Swiss Alps. We 

 know that already in the Tertiary period, and also in the 

 period of the Upper Cretaceous, a number of plants can 

 be traced from Greenland on to Nebraska, in North 

 America, and on the other hand to Bohemia, Moravia, 

 and on to Southern Europe. Thus in the period of the 

 Cretaceous formation, in the Tertiary, and in the present 

 formation, we find the same phenomenon : that Europe 

 with America has a number of species in common 

 which were formerly indigenous in the Arctic zone, and 

 therefore very probably went out from that as their 

 original home. The same process is thus repeated in 

 different ages ; the plant-world of the high north has at 

 all times exercised a great influence on the formation of 

 the plant-covering of Europe. 



(10) The endemic flora of the Nival region arose in 

 our Alps. A principal centre of its formation seems to 

 have been the Monte Rosa chain, in which probably, 

 even during the Glacial period, extensive mountain 

 masses of ice and ncvc were liberated. 



(11) This flora received at the beginning of the Qua- 

 ternary period its present character, and spread on the 

 moraines of the glaciers into the lowland and into the 

 mountainous regions of the neighbouring countries. 



(12) Its mother flora had probably its abode in the 

 Tertiary mountain country of Switzerland. 



NOTES 

 We understand that the post of Assistant Director of tlie 

 Royal Gardens, Kew, has been offered to Mr. D. Morris, M..\., 

 F.G.S., the Director of Public Gardens and Plantations, 

 Jamaica. The appointment is in the gift of the First Lord of 

 the Treasury. 



So much has been heard during the last few years of the 

 services rendered to the science, industry, and commerce of the 

 West Indies by the public gardens and Government plantations 

 of Jamaica under the superintendence of Mr. Morris, that it 

 is with surprise and regret that we learn that the future efliciency 

 of these institutions is seriously threatened. A Select Com- 

 mittee, it appears, was recently appointed, under a resolution of 

 the Council of Jamaica, "to consider the means of diminishing 

 the expenses of the Government," and, among other suggestions 

 and recommendations, it proposed that the Government cin- 

 chona plantations should be sold, and that the public gardens 



at Kingston should be handed over to the local authorities of 

 that town to be maintained by them, instead of, as heretofore, 

 by the Government, under the Director of Public Gardens. 

 Committees appointed under these circumstances are generally 

 more anxious to justify their existence by making recommenda- 

 tions than careful to inquire where they would be always pos- 

 sible or desirable. The cinchona plantations, thus threatened 

 with extinction, were founded in 1868 by Sir John Peter Grant, 

 and now consist of 150 acres under cinchona, with smaller areas 

 under j.alap, tea, and nui'series for timber and shade trees. 

 According to the " Handbook of Jamaica," they distributed in 

 five years to private planters 1200 ounces of cinchona- seed, 

 1,200,000 cinchona seedlings, 400,000 cinchona plants, besides 

 large quantities of timber and shade trees for re-foresting pur- 

 poses. The Kingston Gardens, which are to be taken from 

 under Mr. Morris's control, are used as a depot for plants from 

 the other establishments, and also as the centre of distribution 

 of plants and seeds to all parts of Jamaica and of the West 

 Indies ; there is no doubt, therefore, that they fulfil important 

 functions. 



If there was a single department in the whole Government 

 service on which West Indian economists should have refrained 

 from laying their hands except by way of increasing its scope 

 and efficiency, we should have thought Mr. Morris's department 

 that one. For if the West Indian Islands are ever to emerge 

 from the disastrous economical condition of the past thirty years, 

 and regain their previous flourishing state, it will be by the 

 labours of institutions such as the public gardens, and of men 

 such as Mr. Morris. Their old staples are useless to them, for 

 Europe can buy them cheaper in other markets, and they must 

 find new ones, or plunge deeper into the mire of financial em- 

 barrassment and bankruptcy, public and private. This can only 

 be done by experiments and careful observations which no one 

 but a public department and skilled botanists can carry out. 

 Happily the economic value of the gardens in Jamaica have 

 been recognised by the highest authorities. The Royal 

 Commissioners stated that the department was invaluable, and 

 that it was in as good a state as the sums placed at Mr. Morris's 

 disposal would allow. The Governor coincided in this testi- 

 mony, and added that " Mr. Morris was untiring in his en- 

 deavours to induce persons to commence new industries calcu- 

 lated to develop the resources of the island, .and to bring about a 

 condition of prosperity which would go far to counterbalance 

 the depression under which the sugar industry of Jamaica now 

 labours." It may be hoped therefore, notwithstanding the 

 report of the Committee on Government Economy, that the de- 

 partment may be permitted to pursue its " invaluable " work on 

 the same lines and with undiminished means. 



Mr. Samuel Birch, D.C.L., LL.D., F.S..-\., Keeper of 

 the Egypti.an and Oriental .\ntiquities in the British Museum, 

 died, on the 27th inst., in his seventy-second year. Dr. Birch 

 had ,<ierved in the British Museum for fifty years, during the last 

 part of which he was in charge of the Egyptian and Assyrian 

 antiquities, and it is with this department of Oriental scholar- 

 ship tliat his name will ever be associated. His early writings 

 of nearly fifty years ago dealt mainly with Chinese subjects, and 

 one of his first duties at the British Museum was to catalogue 

 the large collection of Chinese coins, and throughout the greater 

 part of his life he manifested his interest in Chinese subjects by 

 various publications. He was twice despatched to Italy on 

 archasological missions on behalf of the Government, and in 

 1S60 founded the Society of Biblical Archjeology. His works 

 on all departments of Egyptology fill many volumes, and extend 

 over more than forty years, and at the time of his deatli he had 

 in the press one work, while another, a new dictionary of 

 hieroglyphics, was nearly completed. 



