MOLLUSCA OF LOWER CANADA. 



53 



the Canadian area, exclusive of this peninsula, its fauna and 

 flora would seem to be of a mixed character. In Dr. Hookers 

 essay on Arctic Plants, published in the Transactions of the 

 Linnean Society, he includes a large part of Canada in his 

 sub-arctic botanisal province. Long before I had seen this 

 paper, I had come to the same conclusion from the little I knew 

 of the zoology and botany of Lower Canada. The marine 

 shells of the Gulf of the St. Lawrence correspond remark- 

 ably with the shells of comparatively high northern latitudes in 

 Europe: their boreal character is obvious. As indicating a 

 sub-arctic flora, we may point out with Prof. Schouw, " the total 

 absence of tropical families, and a noticeable decrease of forms 

 peculiar to the temperate zone ; the prevalence of forests of firs 

 and birches ; the abundance of Saxifrages, Gentians, species of Are- 

 naria, Silene, Dianthus, and Lycopodium, the quantity of mosses, 

 and the number of willows and sedges." Such marine shells again 

 as : — 



Pecten Islandicus, Chemn. 

 Leda caudata, Donovan. 

 (= L. minuta, Fabr. & Mul.) 

 Crenella nigra, Gray. 

 Crenella decussata, Montagne. 

 (=: C. glandula, Totten.) 

 Serripes Groenlandicus, Ohemn. 

 Astarte elliptica, Brown. 

 " compressa, Linn. 

 Tellina proxima, Brown. 

 Tellina Grcenlandica, Beck. 

 . (=T.fusca, Say, T.Balthica, Lov.) 



Cemoria Noachina, Linn. 

 Margarita undnlata, Sow. 



" helicina, 0. Fabr. 



Trochus alabastrum, Beck. 

 (■= T. occidentalis, Migh.) 

 Scalaria Grcenlandica, Chemn. 

 Natica clausa, Brod. & Sow. 



(= N. Grcenlandica, Chemn.) 

 Admete viridula, Fabr. 

 Trichotropis borealis, Brod. & Sow. 



Tectura testudinalis, Mull. 

 Lepeta cteca, Mull. 



from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, are not only typical boreal 

 forms, but have been dredged by Messrs. McAndrew and 

 Barrett on the coasts of Norway and Finmark. The proximity ' 

 of one of the cold currents of the gulf stream, and the extremely 

 low southern limit of floating ice on this side of the Atlantic, 

 might indeed lead us to suspect the sub-arctic nature of the 

 marine invertebrata of the estuary of the St. Lawrence. It 

 appears to me that the boreal or sub-arctic character of the fauna 

 and flora of part of Canada is tolerably well established. 



The animals and plants of Canada, geographically speaking, 

 have yet other affinities. What has been termed by Mr. 



