370 HEER, MIOCENE FLOPwA OF GREENLAND. 



(d.) By our finding remains of Insects with the leaves. There 

 is the elytron of a small Beetle, and the wing of a good-sized 

 Wood-bug (probably belonging to the family of the PentafomidcB.) 



(2.) The Flora of Aia?iekerdluk* is Miocene. Of the 66 

 species of North Greenland, 18 occur in the Miocene deposits 

 of Central Europe. Nine of these are very widely distributed 

 both as to time and space, viz.. Sequoia Langsdorffii^ Taxodium 

 dubium, Phragmites Oeningensis, Qiiercus Drymeia, Planera 

 XJngeri, Diospyros brachysepala^ Andromeda protogcea, Rhamnus 

 Eridani, and Juglans acuminata. These are found both in the 

 Upper and Lower Molasse of Switzerland, while some species, viz., 

 Sequoia Couttsice, Osmunda Heerii^ Corylus Macquarrii, and 

 Populus Zaddachi, have not as yet been noticed in the Upper 

 Molasse. From these facts it seems probable that the fossil 

 forest of Atanekerdluk flourished in that high northern latitude 

 at the earlier Miocene epoch. 



(3.) The Flora of North Greenland is very rich in species. 

 This is evident from the great variety of plants which the speci- 

 mens exhibit. Although the amount of material obtained from 

 Atanekerdluk is of small extent compared with that which has 

 come from the Swiss localities, yet many of the slabs contain four 

 or five species, and in one instance even eleven. Atanekerdluk 

 has only been twice visited,! so that we have only got a glimpse 

 of the treasures buried there, and which await a more careful 

 search. At Disco and Hare Island there are extensive beds 

 of brown coal, in whose neighbourhood we may fairly expect to 

 find fossil plants. Professor Goppert mentions three species from 

 Kook (Kome) in lat. 70° N., (nearer 70° 30') Pecopteris borealis^ 

 Sequoia hangsdorffii^ and Zamites arcticus,"^ which last he has 

 described in the Neues Jahrbuch fiir Mineralogie, &c., 1866, pp. 

 130 and 134. 



(4.) The Flora of Atanekerdluk proves, without a doubt, that 

 North Greenland, in the Miocene epoch, had a climate much 

 warmer than at present. The difference must be at least 30° F. 



Professor Heer discusses at considerable length this proposition. 

 He says that the evidence from Greenland gives a final answer to 

 those who objected to the conclusions as to the Miocene climate of 



* The fossil Plants here referred to were obtained high up on the hill-side ; 

 lower down, at the foot of the hill, Nordenskiold subsequently discovered 

 remains of a Cretaceous Flora {see further on) ; and Prof. Heer suggests that 

 Eocene Plants also are to be found in that section. — Editor. 



f This was written in 1866. In 1869 Prof. Heer communicated to the 

 Koyal Society of London (Phil. Trans, for 1869,) a memoir descriptive of 

 additional specimens from Atanekerdluk and Kudlisaet (Noursoak and Disco) 

 collected by Messrs. E. Whymper and R. Brown, in the summer of 1867. A 

 further collection, made by the Swedish Expedition in 1870, is described in 

 the K. Sv. Vet. Akad. xiii. No. 2, 1874. A general resume is given in the 

 3rd. vol. of his "Flora fossilis arctica," 1875. 



X Prof. O. Heer subsequently proved that both Pecopteris borealis, Brong., 

 and Zamites arcticus, Goppert, are Cretaceous species, from Kome, on the Nour- 

 soak Peninsula ; whilst Sequoia Langsdorfii (Brongniart) is of Miocene age 

 and common in Disco Island. — Editor. 



