THE MIOCENE PERIOD. 321 



peculiar to Japan. There are also beeches, oaks, planes, 

 poplars, maples, walnuts, limes, and even a magnolia, two 

 cones of which have recently been obtained, proving that 

 this splendid evergreen not only lived but ripened its fruit 

 within the Arctic circle. Many of the limes, planes, and 

 oaks were large-leaved species ; and both flowers and fruits, 

 besides immense quantities of leaves, are in many cases pre- 

 served. Among the shrubs are many evergreens, as Andro- 

 meda, and two extinct genera, Daphnogene and M'Clintockia, 

 with fine leathery leaves, together with hazel, blackthorn, 

 holly, logwood, and hawthorn. A species of Zamia (Zamites) 

 grew in the swamps, with Potanwgeton, Sparganium, and 

 Menyanthes; while ivy and vines twined around the forest- 

 trees, and the broad-level ferns grew beneath their shade. Even 

 in Spitzbergen, as far north as lat. 78 56', no less than ninety- 

 five species of fossil plants have been obtained, including 

 Taxodium of two species, hazel, poplar, alder, beech, plane- 

 tree, and lime. Such a vigorous growth of trees within 12 of 

 the pole, where now a dwarf willow and a few herbaceous 

 plants form the only vegetation, and where the ground is 

 covered with almost perpetual snow and ice, is truly remark- 

 able. " 



Taking the Miocene flora as a whole, Dr. Heer concludes 

 from his study of about 3000 plants contained in the Euro- 

 pean Miocene alone, that the Miocene plants indicate tropical 

 or sub-tropical conditions, but that there is a striking inter- 

 mixture of forms which are at present found in countries 

 widely removed from one another. It is impossible to state 

 with certainty how many of the Miocene plants belong to 

 existing species, but it appears that the larger number are 

 extinct. According to Heer, the American types of plants 

 are most largely represented in the Miocene flora, next those 

 of Europe and Asia, next those of Africa, and lastly those of 

 Australia. Upon the whole, however, the Miocene flora of 

 Europe is mostly nearly allied to the plants which we now 

 find inhabiting the warmer parts of the United States ; and 

 this has led to the suggestion that in Miocene times the 

 Atlantic Ocean was dry land, and that a migration of Ameri- 

 can plants to Europe was thus permitted. This view is borne 

 out by the fact that the .Miocene plants of Europe are most 

 nearly allied to the living plants of the eastern or Atlantic 

 seaboard of the United States, and also by the occurrence of 

 a rich Miocene flora in Greenland. As regards Greenland, 

 21 



