390 



MEMOIRS OF THE KEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEIST 



Introduction 



Several years ago I received from the Geological Survey of 

 Canada a number of specimens of fossil plant remains that had 

 been found in deposits designated as the Saint Eugene silts, 

 which are exposed in the Kootenay Valley, on the Saint Mary 

 Eiver, in the vicinity of Saint Eugene Mission, British Colum- 

 bia. These silts, according to information furnished me at that 

 time, were regarded as Pleistocene and Interglacial in age, by 

 geologists who were acquainted with their stratigraphic rela- 

 tions. The sjDecimens were examined, and a preliminary report 

 was transmitted to the Director of the Survey, which Avas in- 

 cluded in the Summary Report of the Survey for the year 1913.^ 



The report included about a dozen generic identifications 

 {Hicoria, Fagus, Ficus, Cehatha, Platanus, etc.) but no specific 

 descriptions. The specimens were, however, tentatively com- 

 pared with existing species, and the conclusion was expressed 

 {loc. cit., p. 135) that "an analysis of these identifications indi- 

 cates that at least a warm-temperate climate must have pre- 

 vailed in the Kootenay Valley at the time when this flora was 

 living there. The presence of the genus Ficus alone is sufficient 

 evidence on this point. . . . The other genera are so widely dis- 

 tributed, north and south, that, regarded b}^ themselves they 

 would have but little significance as climatic indices. The pre- 

 vailingly large size of the leaves, however, indicates a luxuriant 

 growth such as would probably obtain only in a climate milder 

 than that of the middle United States. ..." 



Subsequently certain specimens that were identified as rep- 

 resenting the genus Ficus, consisting of well-defined fruiting 

 branches, were critically studied and were described under the 

 name Ficus inter glacialisf and a further anaWsis of the flora 

 and its apparent contemporaneous climate resulted in the ex- 

 pressed opinion {Joe. cit., pp. 45, 46) that the specimens "all 

 apparently represent undescribed species and they are large in 



1 A preliminary report by Mr. Arthur Hollick [misprinted Hollock] of the New 

 York Botanical Garden, upon the plants from the Pleistocene deposits. Summary 

 Eept. Geol. Survey [Canada], Dept. Mines, for the calendar year 1913 (Sessional 

 Paper No. 26, 4 George V, 1914), pp. 133-135. Ottawa, 1914. 



2 Hollick, Arthur. A new fossil species of Ficus and its climatic significance. 

 New York Bot. Gard., Jour. vol. 16, pp. 43-47, pis. 152, 153. Mr. 1915. 



