Notices of Memoirs—Nathorst’s Fossil Flora of Japan. 38 
IN@ 2G S — Oly Vee eS - 
I.— Biprae trun Japans Fossita Fiora ar A.G. Natuorst. Hartill 
sexton Taflor. (Ur “ Vega-Expeditionens Vetenskapliga latta- 
gelser.” Bd. II. Stockholm, 1882.) [ConrriBurIon TO THE 
Fossrz Fuora or Japan. By Dr. A. G. Naruorsr. With 16 
Plates. From the Scientific Observations of the Vega Expedi- 
tion, Vol. II., Stockholm, 1882. |] 
N the homeward voyage of the Vega, after successfully accom- 
plishing the north-east passage, Prof. Nordenskidld called at 
Japan, and at a place named Moji, in the neighbourhood of Nanga- 
saki, in 33° N. Lat., discovered a rich flora of late Tertiary or Post- 
Tertiary age. The collections made at this place were entrusted to 
Dr. Nathorst, who, in this memoir, fully describes and figures the 
plants, and draws from them some interesting conclusions respecting 
the climatal conditions of this region during the period when they 
flourished. | 
The plants were found in strata of fine clay, exposed at the sea- 
level, and they were covered by beds of volcanic tuff and ashes 
several hundred feet in thickness. With the exception of a fruit 
of Carpinus and fragments of beech-bark, the remains consist ex- 
clusively of well-preserved impressions of leaves. From 80 to 90 
per cent. of these leaves belong to a species of beech which cannot 
be distinguished from the existing Fagus ferruginea, Ait., which now 
grows in North America from Lake Winnipeg to Florida; at the 
same time there is an existing species of beech in Japan which is 
very Closely allied to the fossil form. The remaining 10 to 20 per 
cent. of the leaves in the collections made, belong to about 70 
different species of trees and shrubs, which are referred to 42 genera. 
The principal of these are Tuwites, Salix (?), Betula (?), Juglans, 
Carpinus, Ostrya, Quercus, Ulmus, Exoecaria, Styrax, Vaccinium, 
Viburnum, Liquidambar, Deutzia, Prunus, Rhus, Acer, Vitis, Tilia, 
Magnolia, and Clematis. 
The peculiar feature of this flora consists in the fact that it does 
not correspond with that now growing in the same position and 
locality, but that it closely resembles the flora now inhabiting the 
forest regions in the mountain districts of the northern portions of 
Japan, at heights varying between 4500 and 7000 feet above the 
sea-level. It is therefore evident that when this fossil flora grew in 
the extreme south of Japan at the sea-level, the climate must have 
been considerably colder than that now prevailing. Judging from 
the number of species which are either identical with or closely 
allied to those of the northern hilly districts of Japan, Dr. Nathorst 
concludes that the age of these leaf-beds does not date further back 
than late Tertiary or Post-Tertiary times, and that most probably it 
coincides with the Glacial period. These fossil plants furnish the 
only evidence hitherto discovered of the former prevalence of a colder 
climate in Japan. There is every probability that in Miocene times 
the climate of Japan was warmer than at present, and the subtropical 
flora which then existed must have been driven southwards during 
