Sir H. H. Howorth — Geological History of the Baltic. 561 



peat, while the oaks and pines succeeded each other on such 

 ground irrespective of any special order, and rather in accordance 

 with accident than law and controlled by local and sporadic 

 conditions. 



What we know of the distribution of the beech in these countries 

 is significant. It has been treated by some as quite a late arrival. 

 It is, on the contrary, an old tree there. Thus Blytt says of it : " Its 

 discontinuous distribution in Norway shows that it is a long time 

 since it wandered thither. Along the whole west coast it only grows 

 wild at Samistrand, north of Bergen. It also has a scattered dis- 

 tribution east of Lindesvas. That it is truly wild with us is shown, 

 among other things, from the large number of lichens peculiar to 

 beech woods which are found in the beech woods of Norway " 

 ("Ueber zwei Kalk-tuff bilduugen in Judbrandsdalen" : Engler 

 Bot. Jahr. Beiblatt, p. 18, 1892). 



This is remarkable testimony, since it shows that the beech is 

 an old denizen of Norway, and we can hardly doubt that it was 

 living there at the time of the Baltic breach, otherwise it must have 

 been introduced by man, which is incredible, for it could not cross 

 the Sound and the Belts, nor are its seeds adapted to aerial flights. It 

 is also old in Denmark, for E. Sernander reminds us how, in 1873, 

 Hansen described in a peat-bog, near the lake of Kjedle, a mass of 

 leaves and a specimen of the fruit of the beech at a depth of 6 feet 

 (Engler Bot. Jahr., xv, 85). Jensen also cites remains of the beech 

 as occurring with those of the pine, oak, hazel, etc., in the marine 

 beds of Randsbaek, in Vendyssel, in Jutland (see Denm. geol., unter., 

 1st raekke, iii, 308). This proves that even in Denmark the beech 

 is a very old tree, and that local circumstances have combined to 

 produce the particular succession in certain places as described by 

 Steenstrup. 



I therefore venture to question the feasibility of separating the 

 most recent period of Scandinavian history into a succession of 

 epochs marked by the prevalence of a particular tree. That may 

 be possible at an earlier horizon, but not since the Litorina sea was 

 initiated. The attempt means applying quite local conditions to 

 illustrate widespread geographical problems. 



There is, however, botanical evidence of another kind which points 

 the same moral as the evidence already adduced, and is in favour of 

 the trend of climatic change having during recent millennia been 

 from a warmer to a colder stage. 



There is evidence from the fjelds in Norway that the forests in the 

 upper ground are shrinking and the trees in their upper stretches 

 are dying, just as the same thing is happening in certain districts in 

 the Alps. The nomenclature of the northern part of the country 

 also affords evidence that since the human period there has been 

 a corresponding shrinkage in the area where cereals can grow. 



The botanical evidence from Scandinavia, therefore, fully sustains 

 that deduced from the mollusca of the Cattegat by Petersen and 

 others, in favour of the conclusion that the climate of the peninsula 

 has been growing colder in the most recent geological times. 



DECADE V. — VOL. II. NO. XII. 36 



