476 Scientific Intelligence. 



tnirabilis to Franeonian horizons is evidence of either " rarity " 

 or "possible monotypio occurrence" seems unlikely. Such forms 

 are easily overlooked, or may fail of collection. That for instance 

 the Helmsdale and Eathic rocks of Sutherlandshire, Scotland, the 

 Hajmahal series of India, and the Oaxacan series contain horizons 

 of the same age as the Rhaetic plant beds of Bayreuth can 

 scarcely be questioned ; and that these several regions are far 

 from exhausted is as certain as the testimony of Hugh Miller, 

 Oldham and others to the immense wealth of fossil plants they 

 contain. Their study afield and in the laboratory is but begun. 



2. A Botanical Expedition to Newfoundland and /Southern 

 Labrador; by M. L. Fernald. Rhodora, XIII, pp. 109-162, 

 1911. — This very interesting paper presents in Part I the journal 

 of the expedition (109-135), while Part II treats of the geo- 

 graphic origin of the flora of Newfoundland. It is this second 

 part which interests geologists, and especially students of Pleisto- 

 cene earth movements and life. 



The flora of Newfoundland so far as worked out by Fernald is 

 made up of 783 forms, of which about 200 species are clearly 

 introduced by man. The indigenous plants can be arranged in 

 four groups as follows : 



Boreal plants which occur to the north of Newfoundland. Of 

 these there are in Newfoundland 466 species or 59 - 5 per cent of 

 the entire flora. 



Western or Canadian plants not reaching Labrador ; 27 species 

 or 3 '5 per cent of the entire flora. 



Southwestern types (Canadian, Alleghanian and Carolinian) ; 

 274 species or 35 per cent of the entire flora. More than 7 per 

 cent of the entire flora is restricted to the coastal sands repre- 

 sented by the New Jersey Pine Barrens. In a recent letter to 

 the reviewer Professor Fernald states that his second expedition 

 to southeastern Newfoundland has added " nearly 80 species of 

 coastal plain origin." 



Endemic plants or species unknown on the American continent ; 

 16 forms or 2 per cent of the entire flora. 



The chief interest for geologists lies in the finding in New- 

 foundland of the New Jersey Pine Barrens flora. The author 

 holds, and correctly, that this flora could have gotten to New- 

 foundland only by a continuous land bridge composed of coastal 

 siliceous sand that must have been in existence in post-Glacial 

 times. 



"To summarize briefly, the indigenous flora of Newfoundland 

 consists primarily of plants which occur to the north, in Labrador, 

 or to the southwest, chiefly along the Atlantic seaboard or the 

 Coastal Plain ; the typical Canadian plants, unless their north- 

 eastern range extends to the north side of the Straits of Belle 

 Isle, being essentially absent from the island. The distance 

 between Newfoundland and Labrador is not sufficiently great to 

 prevent ready interchange of species across the Straits of Belle 

 Isle, but the distance between Newfoundland and Cape Breton is 

 so great that the plants of the latter region rarely if ever span it. 



