June i, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



831 



fully correlated with the scale leaves of the 

 latter genus. From the Priestley Glacier 

 rather indifferently preserved wood is descrihed 

 under the name Antarcticoxylon Priestleyi and 

 considered as a new type probably Araucarian 

 in its relationship. Winged pollen grains are 

 described as Piiyosporites antarcticus. These 

 are suggestive of the Abietinese, but may be 

 those of the Podocarpinese. The remainder of 

 the collection has little interest beyond its 

 indication of the presence of arboreal forms 

 in high southern latitudes. 



The exact age of these plant-containing beds 

 can not be definitely determined from the 

 present collections, although there is no rea- 

 son to doubt the legitimacy of the author's 

 conclusion that the Beacon sandstone is prob- 

 ably Permo-Carboniferous in age with the 

 further possibility that its upper part may 

 be early Mesozoie. 



The demonstration of the former presence of 

 Glossopteris in Antarctica is of the greatest 

 importance. It may be recalled that during 

 the late Devonian or early Carboniferous a 

 flora that may be called a cosmopolitan flora, 

 characterized by such genera as Bothrodendron, 

 Archaeocalamites, Archceopteris, etc., has been 

 found in Ellesmere Land, Spitzbergen, Green- 

 land, Europe, North and South America, 

 South Africa and Australia. Late in the 

 Upper Carboniferous the floras of the world 

 may be segregated into a northern province, 

 of the cosmopolitan type and a southern prov- 

 ince characterized by the Glossopteris flora as 

 Neumayr termed it or the Gangamopteris 

 flora as christened by David White. This 

 latter flora, associated with glacial climatic 

 conditions, has now been recognized from 

 Australia, Tasmania, India, Madagascar, 

 South Africa and South America. Its pres- 

 ence in Antarctica supplies an important link 

 in the chain connecting the now isolated land 

 masses of the southern hemisphere and also 

 suggests the possibility of this flora having 

 originated on the broad bosom of the Antarctic 

 continent. 



An elaboration of this theme would be out 

 of place in the present notice. It has been 

 somewhat fully discussed by Professor Seward 

 in the present connection and it was also fully 



discussed by David White^ in 1907 in connec- 

 tion with his study of the flora of the coal 

 measures of Brazil. Arber's general account^ 

 of the Glossopteris flora, which was reviewed 

 by me* in these columns brought the subject 

 down to about 1904. All of these works con- 

 tain full bibliographic references to which the 

 reader who desires to pursue the subject further 

 is referred. 



When the late Professor Hear published his 

 first account of the Arctic fossil floras the 

 greatest scientific interest was aroused. We 

 have now come to see pretty clearly that exist- 

 ing climates may be regarded as the exception 

 rather than the rule when geologic time is 

 considered as a whole. This coupled with the 

 already described accounts of Jurassic, Cre- 

 taceous and Tertiary plants from the Antarctic 

 continent opposite from Victoria Land'^ tends 

 to make the discoveries announced in Pro- 

 fessor Seward's paper seem normal and just 

 what we should have expected. This is, how- 

 ever, somewhat offset by the tragedy of the 

 Scott expedition, and it should further be 

 remembered that demonstration has now re- 

 placed speculation and we now have a ground- 

 work of solid facts of great importance that 

 promise much for the future. 



Edward W. Berry 



Johns Hopkins UNivERsirY, 

 Baltimore 



SPECIAL ABTICLES 



A BOTANICAL INDEX OF CRETACEOUS AND 

 TERTIARY CLIMATES 



In studying the distribution of Dicotyledons 

 in the principal phytogeographical regions of 

 the earth the writers have encountered certain 



2 White, David, "Permo-Carboniferous Climatic 

 Clanges in South America," Jour. Geol., Vol. 15, 

 pp. 615-655, 1907. 



sArber, E. A. N., "Catalogue of the Fossil 

 Plants of the Glossopteris Flora in the Dept. of 

 Geology, British Museum (Nat. Hist.)," London, 

 1905. 



* Berry, E. W., Science, N. S., Vol. 23, pp. 

 780-782, 1906. 



6 Berry, E. W., "Some Paleontologieal Results 

 of the Swedish South Polar Expedition under 

 Nordenskiold, " Science, N". S., Vol. 38, pp. 656- 

 661, 1913. 



