98 



The Naturalist. 



numerous wing-cases of Coleopttra. In some places the trees have 

 evidently grown on the spot where their remains now lie, in others 

 they have drifted to it. On the same bed of peat, but in another 

 place, we saw an ancient canoe, which affords probably the oldest 

 evidence of the existence of neolithic man in Scotland. Similar 

 canoes have been found in the Forth and Clyde valleys, but these 

 were imbedded in the carse-clays, while the Tay canoe lay below 

 these clays, and is hence presumably more ancient. The age of this 

 peat-bed, or, as it may be termed, buried forest-bed, is what Dr. 

 Geikie terms middle post-glacial, when Britain was still joined 

 to the continent of Europe, and when there was a genial climate and 

 a great growth of forest trees, even in places, such as on the higher 

 hills and in the islands, where trees will not now grow. At 

 this time it is probable that our south-western flora received its 

 peculiar Iberian character, as shown in the Cornish species of 

 Ericce. 



Coeval with this buried forest of the Tay, or perhaps a little earlier, 

 are the mussel-beds of Spitzbergen. (Perhaps I should mention that 

 these mussels — the common Mytilus edulis — are not now found in 

 Spitzbergen in a llviiig condition, but are like some of the mosses, 

 which do not grow there now, evidences that the climate there was 

 once more genial than it is now, just as the Suabian mosses, 

 enumerated below, are records of an arctic climate in Suabia.) In 

 these a goodly number of mosses have been found, and are recorded 

 by Prof. Oswald Heer, in his " Die Miocene Flora und Fauna 

 Spitzbergens." The mosses were determined by Prof. Schimper, 

 and are the following : — 



Dicranella cerviculata, Hedw. 

 Dicrannin arcticum. 

 D. congestum, Brid. 

 D. sp. (0 



Cynodontium (like gracilescens). 

 Trichostomum i>ordenski61di, 



Schpr. , allied to T. tophaceum. 

 Webera Ludwigii, Spr., var. 



angiistifolia. 

 Bryum purpurascens. 

 B. pallens, Sw. 

 B. bimum, Schreb. 

 B. lacustre, Bland. 

 Cinclidium stygium, Sw. 

 PaludeUa squarrosa, L. 

 Timmia megapolitana, Hedw. 



Polytrichum striatum, Hedw. 

 P. sexangulare, Hoppe. 

 Mnium subglobosum, B. & S. 

 Hypnum fluitans, L. 

 H. revolvens, Sw. 

 H. hamulatum. 

 H. molle, Dicks. 

 H. nitens, Schreb. 

 H. stellatum, Schreb. 

 Lininobium isordenskioldi, Schp. 



allied to H. palustre. 

 Pterogonium or Leskea, sp. 

 Aulacomninm turgidum, WaU. 

 A. palustre, L. 



Sphagnum acutifolium, Ehrh. (?) 



