220 Notices of Memoirs — Professor A. G. Nathorst — 



as in the more recent with Pseudobomia ursina, Nath. The latter 

 species has been found with large stems or rhizomes, as well as very 

 small ones, only a few millimetres in diameter, to which extremely 

 delicate, almost membranous, leaves are still attached. It is hence 

 quite certain that there is here no question of the plants having come 

 from distant regions. The materials have not been sorted out. One 

 sees a medley of branches, small and large, and the perfection of the 

 preservation of their delicate leaves demonstrate conclusively that 

 they have not undergone transportation from afar. The same applies 

 to Archceopteris fimbriata. The beds of coal, the clay with rootlets, 

 and the very nature of the plants themselves, all point to the same 

 conclusion, namely, that we have here a flora which nourished in part on 

 the very spot where it is now found. 



As I have already pointed out in my description of the Devonian 

 flora of Ellesmere Land, one arrives at the same conclusions here also, 

 and it is unnecessary to enter into further details. 



In the Arctic regions, Culm deposits, yielding fossil plants, are 

 known from Spitzbergen, 1 from the north-east of Greenland, 2 and 

 probably from the south of Melville Island, in the Arctic Archipelago 

 of America. 



We will here concern ourselves only with Spitzbergen, although it 

 may be mentioned in passing that the flora of the Culm discovered 

 by the Danish expedition in North-East Greenland, in latitude 

 81° North, consists of nearly the same species as that of Spitzbergen. 

 The latter flora has been observed in many localities up to 79° of 

 latitude. It is characterized by the presence of Stigmaria, with 

 appendicular organs radiating in all directions, still in continuity and 

 penetrating the clay beneath. We are thus able, in several places, to 

 observe the presence of Stigmaria in situ, which furnishes undeniable 

 evidence of the fact that the plants lived in the place where we now 

 find them. The stems of Lepidodendron found in the same place have 

 a diameter of at least 40 cm. It would be superfluous to give other 

 examples, for one can scarcely doubt that the plants of the Culm have 

 flourished in the very place in which they are now found, or in its 

 vicinity. 



On the other hand, the observations which relate to the Triassic 

 plants of Spitzbergen and Eastern Greenland are somewhat different. 

 The latter ones belong to the Ithsetic Series and include several species 

 of Pterophyllum, Podozamites, Cladophlebis, 3 etc. In Spitzbergen one 

 finds them as far north as 78°. i Neither there nor in Eastern 

 Greenland, where one meets with them between the 70th and 7 1st 

 parallel, are they associated with beds of coal, but the manner in 

 which they occur in Greenland indicates that in no case have they 



1 A. G. Nathorst, " Zur Palaozoischen Flora cler Arctischen Zone " : Kongl. 

 Svenska Vet.-Akacl. Handl., vol. xxvi, No. 4, 1894. 



2 Id., " Contributions to the Carboniferous Flora of North - Eastern 

 Greenland": Meddelelser om Gronland, vol. lxiii ; Copenhagen, 1911. 



3 N. Hartz, " Planteforsteninger fra Cap Stewart i Ostgronland " : Meddelelser 

 om Gronland, vol. xix ; Copenhagen, 1896. 



4 A. G. Nathorst, " Zur Mesozoischen Flora Spitzbergens " : Kongl. Svenska 

 Vet.-Akad. Handl., vol. xxx, No. 1 ; Stockholm, 1897. 



