MARCH 21, 1884.] 
of coal-tar colors; and, while this tar presents an at- 
tractive field for research, it is not of great value at 
present. On the other hand, the tar from the Simé6n- 
Carves has a specific gravity of 1.20, is black and 
thick, rich in naphthaline and anthracine, contains 
benzine, toluine, xyline, and carbolic acid, and is 
free from paraffines. A good deal of benzol is sup- 
posed to be carried off and burned. Now, Mellor has 
recently patented a process for extracting benzol from 
gas by passing it up through an earthenware tower 
filled with broken glass moistened with nitric acid. 
Davis has also a process for refrigerating gases. 
Either of these processes, added to the present plant 
of the Simon-Carveés, would save valuable products 
for coal-tar colors. 
It is generally the fate of new improvements, 
that some unforeseen difficulty stands in the way of 
immediate adoption. In this case the dilemma 
seems to be, that the iron-men say, give us beehive 
or Jameson coke and Simon-Carvés by-products, 
and we will embrace the improvement at once. But, 
while the Jameson coke is good, the by-products 
are not as yet of much value; and, while the Carves 
by-products are valuable, the coke is not yet satisfac- 
tory. Improvements often are adopted partially, or in 
some modified form. So it appears to be in this 
case. 
The furnaces at Gartscherrie, near Glasgow, Scot- 
land, have for years been smelting with raw coal, allow- 
ing it to coke itself at the top of the furnace, thus 
losing all the by-products, and some of the coal itself. 
They have recently tried closing in the top of two of 
these furnaces, and conducting the furnace-gases 
through condensing-apparatus on the way to the boil- 
ers, hot-blast stoves, etc. They have been so much 
pleased with the result of the experiment, that they 
propose to apply the same improvement to the other 
eight furnaces. This arrangement will probably yield 
a much heavier oil than the Jameson oven, but perhaps 
not so heavy as the Simon-Carves; and, as the coke is 
made within the furnace itself, it is hard to say just 
what its quality may be. 
Report says that modified plans are being tried in 
still another way, and that the highly bituminous 
coals of Colorado are treated by a process of cok- 
ing; and the derived gas is injected into the blast- 
furnace, and thus re-enforces the heat of the coke, 
which is mixed with the ore, as usual, and has 
thereby effected a reduction of 75% in the cost of 
the smelting. 
R. H. RICHARDS. 
THE FLORA OF LABRADOR. 
THE list of the plants of Labrador published in the 
Proceedings of the U.S. national museum, vol. vi. 
pp. 126-137, is interesting as showing some facts of 
geographical distribution. Though the list makes 
uo pretensions to being complete, still it may be 
considered that it represents the flora in a sufficient- 
ly complete form to allow inferences to be drawn 
from it. 
SCIENCE. 
399 
There are enumerated, altogether, a hundred and 
sixty-one species and varieties. Of these, two, Ranun- 
culus acris and Capsella bursa-pastoris, have been 
introduced from Europe. Of the hundred and fifty- 
nine left, a hundred, or nearly sixty-three per cent, 
are natives of Europe as well as of Labrador. Out 
of these hundred species, there are some having a 
more northern distribution than Labrador, and a few 
extend even to the Arctic circle. Many of them are 
marsh or swamp plants, or else live along the sea- 
coast. The flora, as a whole, is most decidedly north- 
ern in its character. 
Of the fifty-nine species not known to Europe, it 
is found that thirty-eight have a range to the north- 
ward of the 49th parallel, and that only about four 
(viz., Fragaria Virginiana, Kalmia latifolia, K. an- 
gustifolia, and Alnus serrulata) can be considered as 
southern forms. Of these, the first is ‘rather rare,’ 
the two Kalmias are found in ‘ravines and near 
ponds in the interior,’ while the last is found ‘in 
ravines’ and along the seacoast. The northern as- 
pect of the flora is further illustrated by the following 
facts: — 
The Ericaceae, an order most abundant in cold 
climates, has seventeen species; Rosaceae has eigh- 
teen species, ten of them belonging to the northern 
genera Potentilla and Rubus; Caryophyllaceae has 
eleven species and varieties; while the Labiatae has 
not a single one, the Borraginaceae has only one, 
Scropulariaceae but two, and Compositae is sparsely 
represented by four. 
This last seems an especially striking fact, and is 
in accordance with what we might expect. We know 
that the order is largely a tropical one, and that proba- 
bly the heat of the summer months in Labrador is 
not sufficient, and not long enough continued, to en- 
able the plants to flower and fruit. Of the Legumi- 
nosae, there are only five species, four of them being 
European also; and this order may be regarded as 
being in the same category as the Compositae. 
In a former article (Indigenous plants common to 
Europe and the United States, Journ. Cine. soc. nat. 
hist., iv. p. 51), I have endeavored to show that we 
must look to the north as the place of origin of many of 
our plants; and when we find that sixty-three per cent 
of Labrador plants are also European, and twenty- 
three per cent have a high northern range, some ex- 
tending to Alaska and Greenland, we see further 
reason for the assertion. That many of these plants 
were at one time distributed all around the Arctic 
circle, there can be no doubt; and that they have 
been driven from their first homes by the excessive 
cold, and found suitable abiding-places at the south; 
must also be considered as an established fact. The 
agent in this pushing-southward of northern forms 
may be regarded as the glacial period, when the pres- 
ence of the immense mass of ice on the continent 
caused the flora to continue to retire farther and 
farther south as the cold became more and more 
intense: when it mitigated, many of the plants re- 
turned north, and established themselves as near as 
they could to their original homes. 
Jos. F. JAMES. 
