Marsh Collection, Peabody Museum. 423 



certain that they are later in age than those containing the 

 Upper Cretaceous flora above described. 



As Wallace gives such an excellent summary of what is 

 known on this subject, I quote his statement in full. He says :* 

 " One of the most startling and important of the scientific dis- 

 coveries of the last forty years has been that of the relics of a lux- 

 uriant flora in the various parts of the Arctic regions. It is a dis- 

 covery that was totally unexpected and is even now considered 

 by many men of science to be completely unintelligible ; but 

 it is so thoroughly established, and it has such a direct and 

 important bearing on the subjects we are discussing in the 

 present volume, that it is necessary to lay a tolerably complete 

 outline of the facts before our readers. 



" The Miocene flora of temperate Europe was very like that 

 of Eastern Asia, Japan, and the warmer part of Eastern North 

 America of the present day. It is very richly represented in 

 Switzerland by well preserved fossil remains, and after a close 

 comparison with the flora of other countries Professor Heer 

 concludes that the Swiss Lower Miocene flora indicates a 

 climate corresponding to that of Louisiana, North. Africa, and 

 South China, while the Upper Miocene climate of the same 

 country would correspond to that of the south of Spain, 

 Southern Japan, and Georgia (U. S. of America). Of this 

 latter flora, found chiefly at (Eningen in the northern extremity 

 of Switzerland, 465 species are known, of which 166 species 

 are trees or shrubs, half of them being evergreens. They com- 

 prise sequoias like the Californian giant trees, camphor-trees, 

 cinnamons, sassafras, bignonias, cassias, gleditschias, tulip-trees, 

 and many other American genera, together with maples, ashes, 

 planes, oaks, poplars, and other familiar European trees repre- 

 sented by a variety of extinct species. If now we go to the 

 west coast of Greenland in 70° N. Lat. we find abundant 

 remains of a flora of the same general type as that of (Eningen 

 but of a more northern character. We have a sequoia identi- 

 cal with one of the species found at (Eningen, a chestnut, salis- 

 buria, liquidambar, sassafras, and even a magnolia. We have 

 also seven species of oaks, two planes, two vines, three beeches, 

 four poplars, two willows, a walnut, a plum, and several shrubs 

 supposed to be evergreens ; altogether 137 species, mostly well 

 and abundantly preserved ! 



" But even further north in Spitzbergen, in 78° and 79° N. 

 Lat. and one of the most barren and inhospitable regions on 

 the globe, an almost equally rich fossil flora has been discovered 

 including several of the Greenland species, and others peculiar, 

 but mostly of the same genera. There seem to be no ever- 

 greens here except coniferae, one of which is identical with the 

 * Island Life, 1892, p. 183. 



