444 C. Reid and H. N. Ridley—Fossil Arctic Plants. 
Mosszs. 
Brachythecium rutabulum, Bruch. and | A. euspidatum, Mitt. 
Schimp. | Philonotis fontana, Brid. 
Amblystegium fluitans, Mitt. Webera albicans, Schimp. 
Flylocomnium squarrosum, Schimp. Bryum pallens, Sw. 
Campylium stellatum, Mitt. Mnium punctatum, L. 
Acroceratium sarmentosum, Mitt. 
These mosses are all fragments of stems with the leaves attached, 
and often much decayed. We are indebted to Mr. Mitten for kindly 
identifying them. : 
A glance at the list of flowering plants shows that the flora with 
which we have to deal was an Arctic one, corresponding in some 
respects to that of Iceland. The presence of the two Salices and 
Betula nana is sufficient evidence of this, which is confirmed by the 
mosses, of which Mr. Mitten remarks that they look like a lot of 
bits drifted down in a mountain-stream. Acroceratium sarmentosum 
is especially noteworthy as being an Alpine moss, growing in the 
mountains of Killarney, Scotland, ete. 
Salix myrsinites has not hitherto been recorded as a fossil plant. 
The foliage attributed to “bilberry” in Prof. Prestwich’s paper 
was that of this species, which bears a resemblance to the leaves 
of a Vaceinium on cursory examination. Cornus sanguinea is repre- 
sented by a single seed so large that we were for a long time dubious 
as to its belonging to this species, but it seems impossible to refer it 
to any other, and we must conclude it to be merely an unusually 
large form. The fruits referred to Ginanthe Phellandrium are excep- 
tionally small (35 inch), but otherwise correspond exactly with our 
recent specimens. 
As .is usual in these deposits, there is a large proportion of 
aquatics, and plants which occur on the damp edges of streams and. 
the banks of lakes, whence their seeds have drifted into the mud at 
the bottom, and nearly all are plants still occurring in high latitudes, 
but there are several species not truly Arctic, at least at the present 
day; these are Taxus baccata, Sparganium ramosum, Cornus san- 
guinea, and Potamogeton trichoides. Bidens cernua is not included 
in Hooker’s distribution of Arctic plants (Trans. Linn. Soe. vol. xxiii. 
p- 251), but B. tripartita is. B. cernua however seems to go up north 
almost as far as B. tripartita, though it appears to be less common 
everywhere. On the other hand, we have Salix polaris, only occur- 
ring now in very high Aretic latitudes. This species we know from 
other deposits was much more widely distributed in Glacial and 
Postglacial times. It has been found in Prussia. 
The flora thus suggests the approach of a warmer period following 
an Arctic one, so that the Arctic flora was not entirely gone by the 
time that the more temperate one had come. 
