A. Hollick—Kenai Flora of Alaska. 329 



three papers were noted which have a bearing on the subject. 

 Saporta* describes the discovery of a single species of a cycad, 

 Zamites epibius Sap. (I. c. p. 322), in the middle Tertiary of 

 Provence, France, associated with many of the same angio- 

 sperm genera as those represented in the Alaskan flora. He 

 describes and figures it again in his "Etudes sur la Vegetation 

 du Sud-Est de la France a FE-poque Tertiare, Part III," f 

 compares it with Z. formosus Heer from the Jurassic of 

 Switzerland, and says (1. c. p. 11):" ... .Zamites epibius, 

 despite its analogy Avith the Jurassic genus, must necessarily 

 be specifically distinct, especially when one realizes the vast 

 time interval which separates them." The interest and impor- 

 tance which Saporta attached to this single specimen may be 

 inferred from the lengthy discussion which he gives to it in 

 each paper. It is possible that a small fragment in one of our 

 collections, evidently a Zamites, may belong to Saporta 's spe- 

 cies. 



The third paper is by Heer, $ in which he describes and 

 illustrates a Tertiary flora almost identical with ours, from the 

 island of Saghalien, in northeastern Asia, where the same asso- 

 ciation of angiosperms and cycads occur and in regard to 

 which he remarks (I. c. p. 9): "The most striking .... is the 

 family of the Cycads There are two species, which dif- 

 fer widely from all living ones, but which show a striking and 

 unmistakable identity with Jurassic and Rhaetic forms." 

 Two species of Nilssonia are described and figured {N. sero- 

 tina and JV. pygmcBd). The former species is undoubtedly 

 represented in our collections by a number of specimens, and 

 it is interesting to note that one of his figures (I. c. fig. 1, pi. II) 

 depicts this species associated with a leaf of Populus arctica 

 Heer on one and the same piece of matrix : an association of 

 species which is duplicated in several of the fragments of 

 matrix in the Alaskan collections. 



Significance of the Facts. 



To those who are familiar with the factors which influence 

 the distribution of our living flora, the presence of cycads, 

 representing a tropical type of vegetation, associated with spe- 

 cies of Populus, Corylus, Carpimts, Betula, Juglans, etc., in 

 far northern latitudes, will appear incongruous; but the fact 

 that such an association existed in those regions in the Terti- 

 ary period cannot be questioned. It is evident, of course, that 

 cycads must have continued their existence somewhere through- 

 out both Tertiary and Quaternary times, otherwise they would 



* Bull. Soc. Geol. France, Ser. II, xxi, 314-328, pi. 5, f. 1-3, 1864. 

 f Amiales Sei. Nat., Ser. V (Bot.), viii, pi. 1, f. 1, 1867. 

 % Fl. Foss. Aret., v (Mioc. Fl. Sachalin"), 1878. 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Fourth Series, Vol. XXXI, No. 183 — April, 1911. 

 23 



