101 



DISCUSSION OE THE FLORA. 



In discussing the Tertiary flora presented in these studies, the leading questious offered 

 for solution are — 



1. The general distribution in western Canada, as between the Eocene and the Miocene, 



as well as the geographical range of each . 



2. The more special horizon of the Miocene plants, with respect to their location in the 



Miocene proper. 



It should be pointed out in the first place that the results derived from the collections 

 made by Lambe in 1897 and 1906, as well as those of Ells and Johnston in 1904, when 

 added to those of previous collectors, chiefly Heer and Dawson, show a total of 271 species 

 and genera as entering into the entire Tertiary flora of Saskatchewan, Alberta, the North- 

 West Territories and British Columbia. A few species known to the United States, but 

 heretofore unknown within Canadian limits, have been found to occur within the more 

 northern area, but this number is inconsiderable. The more recent collections referred to have 

 added only ten new species or 3.7 percent to the flora as already known — a surprisingly 

 small proportion when we recall the vast extent of the territory from which specimens have 

 been derived, and the further fact that in most of the recent collections from other regions 

 there has been a much higher percentage of new forms. This would seem to indicate that 

 the various plant beds from which collections have been made were examined somewhat 



