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erian border in the vicinity of Tyumen. It was very hot when 

 we arrived in Leningrad on July tenth, and continued so while 

 we were in European Russia, but as we approached the Urals it 

 began to rain, and we had no opportunity to get a good view of 

 the mountains. All across Siberia, nearly to Irkutsk, it was 

 cold and rainy, the weather being (we are assured) quite excep- 

 tionally bad this year. In all this long journey two species of 

 plants stand out as most characteristic and universally present. 

 One is the birch {Betula alba or related segregates), the other 

 Epilobium or Chamaenerion angustifolium. The latter, we 

 thought, should be the Russian national flower. It occurs in 

 masses in the woods, enlivening the landscape by its bright 

 pink color. In places, I thought I could see also Lythrum 

 salicaria, but could not be quite sure from the train. The 

 landscape crossing Siberia was on the whole monotonous; open 

 grassy country, giving place here and there to forest. The 

 forest is called "taiga," and the station Taiga, where people 

 change for Tomsk, is evidently so named because it stands near 

 the beginning of a considerable forested area. We passed no 

 desert country and it is easy to understand how the Palaearctic 

 biota can spread east and west from Lake Baikal to the shores 

 of Europe. Our first real contact with the Siberian flora was at 

 Ust Balei, on the River Angara, where we went to examine the 

 Jurassic beds which contain fossil insects. The locality is 

 famous not only on account of the fossil insects but also for an 

 extensive flora, described by Heer in 1878. We found the 

 exposures on the cliffs facing the east side of the Angara, and 

 guided by Mr. Jemchujnikov of the Geological Committee, had 

 no difficulty in finding numerous specimens. The various 

 kinds of Ginkgo, Samaropsis, Phyllotheca, Baiera, Kaidocarpum, 

 etc. were very well preserved, as well as species of ferns. 

 Seward has shown that the nomenclature of Heer is to be con- 

 siderably revised, and I suppose that the 56 species catalogued 

 from the Irkutsk district will have to be reduced to a much 

 smaller number. However, the large collections already made 

 by Jamchujnikov have been sent to Leningrad, and it is expected 

 that a revision will be forthcoming in due course. The bank 

 where we got the fossils was covered in large part by a growth 

 of vegetation with many beautiful flowers. I catalogued the 

 genera I happened to see just around me, as follows: Trifolium, 



