THE HAMILTOX ASSOCIATION. IOC 



etc. The late Dr. Asa Grey noticed nearly forty years ago 

 the relationship existing- between the Modern Flora of Japan 

 and North x\merica. Dr. A. Henry more recently claims that 

 the "Tulip Tree" of China is identical with the American one.) 

 As regards the Geographical distribution of land plants oii 

 this Northern Continent, it bristles with physical difficulties, 

 remarks Sir William. Indeed the same may be said of the 

 Fauna. He then gives an account from a lecture by the 

 late Dr. Asa Grey on Forest Geography and Archaeology, pub- 

 lished in the American Journal of Science, xvi., 1878, and 

 taking the following as his text, he imparts to his readers most 

 valuable information on "The Geneses and Migration of Land 

 Plants from Mesozoic times until now. "I can only say at large 

 that the same species of Tertiary Fossil Plants have been found 

 all round the world ; that the richest and most extensive finds 

 are in Greenland ; that they comprise most of the sorts wdiich 



I have spoken of as American trees which once lived in Eu- 

 rope — Magnolias, Sassafras, Hickories, Gum Trees, Southern 

 Cypress, and especially Sequoias, not only the two 

 which obviously answer to the two Big Trees now 

 peculiar to California, but several others. We have 

 evidence not merely of "Pines" and "Maples," "Poplars," 

 "Beeches," "Lindens," so like those of our own time and coun- 

 try that we may fairly reckon them as the ancestors of several 

 of ours. We appear to be within the limits of scientific infer- 

 ence when we announce that our existing temperate trees 

 came from the North. Remains of the same plant have been 

 ■found fossil, in our temperate region, as welk as in Europe." 

 Commenting on this extract. Sir W. Dawson remarks : "Tli,i 



truly Eocene Flora of the temperate and Northern parts of 

 America has so many species in common with that called 

 "Miocene" in Greenland that its identity can scarcely be doubt- 

 ed. This "Eocene Flora" established itself in Greenland an>l 

 probablv all around the Arctic Circle in the warm period of the 

 early Eocene, and as the climate of the Northern hemisphere 

 became gradually reduced from that time to the end of "the 

 Pliocene." it marched on over both continents to the South,, 



