REMARKS UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 565 



bulbosus, Scirpus maritimus, and Spartina stricta, for their existence at 

 Onondaga lake, and Lathynis maritimus on the banks of Oneida lake." 

 He then conjectures that in some past geological period the land was 

 submerged, and the ocean extended into the interior. 



In the Canadian Naturalist for May, 1867, A. T. Drummond, b. a., 

 LL.B., sets forth similar facts, and mentions twenty species of maritime 

 plants that have been found in the interior. He refers the origin of this 

 distribution to the presence of salt water in the great lakes in the Post- 

 Pliocene or Champlain period, subsequent to the glacial drift. As the 

 waters gradually became fresh, some of the species would be extermi- 

 nated, and others become reconciled to the changed conditions, and 

 remain as monuments to this ancient oceanic prolongation into the inte- 

 rior of the continent. "^ 



A few years since I made inquiries of botanists for catalogues of 

 plants along the great lakes, St. Lawrence and Hudson river valleys, 

 and published in the Proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science* a brief statement of the facts obtained, with 

 details respecting the occurrence of the species in the several localities. 



There are seventy-nine species in this list. Of these, seven are noted 

 as doubtful, since they may not be confined in their range to the sea- 

 shore. The following may be legitimately added to the doubtful list: 

 Zygadejius glaucus, Solidago Houghtonii, and Corispermum hyssopifo- 

 lium. These occur in the interior, and not on the coast. The last, with 

 Najas major, are not on the American, but flourish on the European 

 coast. Add, also. Lobelia Kalmii, Rhyncospora capillacea, Scleria verti- 

 cillata, Scirpus pungens, and Polatiisia graveolens, which, upon a careful 

 examination, may prove to belong to the maritime type ;— certainly, so 

 far as known, their distribution corresponds with that of the seventy- 

 nine in the table. These eight, added to the seventy-nine, make a total 

 of eighty-seven. 



Of this list, following Gray's Manual of Botany, twenty-two are found 

 on the coast north of New York, six south of the same, thirty (including 

 Juncus Vaseyi, on the authority of Dr. T. C. Porter) occur mostly south 

 of New England, and twenty-two are found along the whole of our east- 

 ern shore. Thirty-three of them, or only ten less than the whole number 



* Vol. xix, p. 175- 



