J) ar Oe 
Biographical Notice of Edward Forbes. 383 
of the west and southwest of Ireland. Consequently, at some 
period or other, continuous dry land must have existed from the 
coast of Spain to that of Ireland. 
The Devon Flora, connected with _ of the Channel Isl- 
ands and the pe: parts of Franc 
The Kentish Flora.—The cecation of the southeast of .- 
England is distinguishew by the presence of a number of specigs 
common to this district and the opposite coast of Franc 
The Alpine Flora.—On the tops of some of our neat lofty 
mountains, particularly in Scotland, are plants not found else- 
where in the British Islands, but which are identical with those 
of the epee Nc Alps, thus pointing to a former connection 
in that direct 
5. The Gonmial Flora.—T his universal flora is almost identical 
as to species with the flora of central and western Europe, and 
may be properly styled Germanic. 
e arguments by which these views are maintained are clearly 
and satisfactorily developed, but must be read and studied to be 
appreciated. ‘That portion of the paper, however, which relates 
to the distribution of the marine plants and animals pik inhabit- 
ing the British seas is still more deserving of careful study. The 
account of the distribution of the British Mollusca is particularly 
SO; it contains a mass of information on the subject, not to be 
found, at the time of its publication, in any one work, and of the 
greatest value to the psent of Tertiary geology. I will only 
mention one or two of the more interesting points with which 
the memoir alee 
“'That the flora and fauna, terrestrial and marine, of the British 
Islands and seas have originated, so far as that area is concerned, 
since the Miocene epoch. 
“The greater part of the terrestrial animals and foweays plants 
how inhabiting the British Islands are members of specific centres 
beyond their area, and have migrated to it over continuous land, 
before, during, or ‘after the last epoch. 
“ All the changes before, during, or after the glacial epoch ap- 
pear to have been gradual and not sudden, so that no marked line 
of demarcation can be drawn between the creatures inhabiting 
the same element and the same locality during two proximate 
riods. 
Oe. the many scientific papers of great merit which Prof. Forbes 
ep eoanensly published, in our own and other Journals, I will only 
lude to one, which in this room cannot be passed over in silence. 
In his paper ‘On the Fluvio-marine Tertiaries of the Isle of 
Wight,’ published in the 9th vol. of our Quarterly eee, the 
result of the laborious investigations of several mont e 
established, on data which cannot be questioned, the ie ‘order of 
superposition of the upper tertiary beds of that typical locality, 
