THE 



CANADIAN RECORD 



OF SCIENCE. [HB.RA 



VOL. II. OCTOBER, 1887. NO. 8. 



The Distribution and Physical and Past-G-eo- 



logical Relations of British North 



American Plants. 



By A. T. Drummond. 

 (Continuvd from page 423.) 



It is difficult to resist the thought, that many of the 

 plants thus common to Europe and America have had their 

 point of origin and centre of dispersion on the eastern side 

 of this continent. Many interesting geological questions 

 arise in this connection. America has an older look about 

 it than Europe. Eastern Canada has afforded the earliest 

 traces of the dawn of life on the earth. To come down to 

 later times, the floras of the continent in the later Creta- 

 ceous and in the Eocene ages afford the first traces of 

 resemblance to the flora of to-day. Some genera then 

 appeared which have representatives at the present time, 

 though, with rare exceptions, specifically different. The 

 American Eocene flora is found to have a resemblance, not 

 so much to the Eocene of Europe, as to the later Miocene 

 30 



