.HEEK, ARCTIC FOSSIL PLANTS, 875 



prising to find a Lime (Tilia Malmgreni)^ an Arborvitae {Thuites 

 Ehrenswaerdi)^ a Juniper, and two Poplars nearly on the 79tli 

 parallel of latitude. The Flora of the Eisfiord is much richer, 

 especially that of the black shales of Cape Staratschin, where we 

 find 26 Conifers belonging to the Abietinece, the CupressinecB, 

 and the Taxodiece. Several of these species are represented 

 not only by leaves, but by their flowers and fruit. The 

 chief forest-trees were a Sequoia {S. Nordenskioldi), of which 

 we have leaves, twigs, and seeds, Libocedrus Sabiniana, and 

 Taxodium distichum. Of the last-named the collection contains, 

 not only the twigs clothed with leaves, but the male and female 

 flowers, the scales, and seeds ; so that not even the delicate catkins 

 are wanting to identify this tree with that which is now growing 

 in the Southern States of North America. No one can possibly 

 doubt that the tree grew where its remains are now found. 

 Libocedrus Sabiniana is also well represented by its peculiar 

 seeds ; it was the most graceful tree in Spitzbergen, and its 

 nearest congeners are now found in Chili. Of other trees. Pop- 

 lars are the most common, with the Birch, Hazel, and Snowball 

 { Viburnum) ; but we are not so much surprised at finding them 

 as two large-leaved Oaks, the Ivy, and a Walnut. 



This Flora has the greatest resemblance to that of North Green- 

 land and the other Arctic localities ; but several species extend 

 southwards into Europe. On the whole, this Miocene Flora 

 bears evidence of a far greater contrast of climate between 

 Europe and the Arctic regions at that epoch, than the Lower- 

 Carboniferus plants show for their period. All the tropical and even 

 sub-tropical forms are wanting. These facts show us that great 

 changes of climate must have occurred, and it will be interesting 

 to trace when these first began to show themselves. 



Cretaceous : Greenland. — The Cretaceous Flora of the Arctic 

 regions throws important light on this point, and our knowledge 

 of it has been largely enriched by the discoveries of the Swedish 

 Expedition of 1870. When the first volume of the " Flora 

 arctica " appeared, Prof. Heer could only speak of a few speci- 

 mens belonging to this epoch, which had been found at Kome, 

 on the north side of the Noursoak Peninsula. Prof. Nordenskiold 

 has, however, paid great attention to these fossils, and has dis- 

 covered several new localities for them on the same coast. They 

 are found in black shales, apparently, from the character of the 

 fossils, belonging to the Lower Cretaceous — the Urgonian, for 

 they resemble the Flora of Wernsdorf, in the Carpathians. 

 Among forty-three species already determined, Prof. Heer finds 

 twenty -four Ferns, five Cycads, eight Conifers, three Mono- 

 cotyledons. Only one fragment is dicotyledonous, a Poplar 

 leaf, and it is the oldest dicotyledonous plant that has hitherto 

 been discovered. Among the numerous Ferns the Gleichenia is 

 the most common type, but Marattiacece and Sphenopteris are not 

 rare. Of Cycads we have Zamites, with very fine leaves, and 

 Podozamites Hoheneggeri (known from Wernsdorf in the Car- 

 pathians). It is striking that Sequoias and Pines approaching 

 closely to Tertiary types appear among the Conifers. 



