294 Prof. Gray's Address before the 
and local origination of each type, which is now almost uni- 
versally taken for granted. 
e remarkable facts in regard to the Eastern American and 
Asiatic floras, which these speculations were to explain, have 
since increased in number, more especially through the admira- 
ble collections of Dr. Maximowictz in Japan and adjacent coun- 
tries, and the critical comparisons he has made and is still 
engaged upon. 
I am bound to state that in a recent general work * by a dis- 
tinguished botanist, Professor Grisebach of Gottingen, these 
facts have been emptied of all special significance, and the 
relations between the Japanese and the Atlantic United States 
floras declared to be no more intimate than might be expected 
from the situation, climate, and present opportunity of inter- 
change. This extraordinary conclusion is reached by regarding 
as distinct species all the plants common to both countries be- 
tween which any differences have been discerned, although such 
differences would probably count for little if the two inhabit 
the same country, thus transferring many of my list of identical 
to that of representative species, and then by simply eliminating 
from consideration the whole array of representative species, |. €, 
all cases in which the Japanese and the American plant are 
not exactly alike. As if, by pronouncing the cabalistic word 
species, the question were settled, or rather the greater part of 
it remanded out of the domain of science; as if, while com: 
these singular duplicates to be wondered at, indeed, but wholly 
beyond the reach of inquiry. 
Now the only known cause of such likeness is inheritance; 
and as all transmission of likeness.is with some difference 12 
individuals, and as changed conditions have resulted, as is well 
known, in very considerable differences, it seems to me that if 
of arctic fossil plants. These are confirmed and extend 
through new investigations by Heer and Lesquereux, the resu!t 
= to me by the latter. ee 
The Taxodium, which everywhere abounds in the miocené 
formations in Europe, has been specifically identified, first 
by Goeppert, then by Heer, with our common cypress of the 
* Die Vegetation der Erde nach ihrer klimatischen Anordnung, 1871. 
thanks mainly to the researches of Heer upon ample collection 
Its 
