184 



ISLAND LIFE 



PATIT I 



type as that of CEiiinghen but of a more northern character. 

 We have a sequoia identical with one of the speCies found 

 at (Eninghen, a chestnut, saHsburia, liquidambar, sas- 

 safras, and even a magnoha. 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 hicluding several of the Greenland species, and 

 others peculiar, but mostly of the same genera. There 

 seem to be no evergreens here except coniferse, one of 

 which is identical with the swamp-cypress {Taxodmm 

 disticlmtm) now found living in the Southern United States ! 

 There are also eleven pines, two Libocedrus, two sequoias, 

 with oaks, poplars, birches, planes, limes, a hazel, an ash, 

 and a walnut ; also water-lilies, pond-weeds, and an iris — 

 altogether about a hundred species of flowering plants. 

 Even in Grinnell Land, within 8J degrees of the pole, a 

 similar flora existed, twenty-five species of fossil plants 

 having been collected by the last Arctic expedition, of 

 which eighteen were identical with the species from other 

 Arctic localities. This flora comprised poplars, birches, 

 hazels, elms, viburnums, and eight species of conifers 

 including the swamp cypress and the Norway spruce 

 (Finns abies) which last does not now extend beyond 

 691° 



Fossil plants closely resembling those just mentioned 

 have been found at many other Arctic localities, especially 

 in Iceland, on the Mackenzie Eiver in 65° N. Lat. and in 

 Alaska. As an intermediate station we have, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Dantzic in Lat. 55° N., a similar flora, with 

 the swamp-cypress, sequoias, oaks, poplars, and some 

 cinnamons, laurels, and figs. A little further south, near 

 Breslau, north of the Carpathians, a rich flora has been 

 found allied to that of (Eninghen, but wanting in some of the 

 more tropical forms. Again, in the Isle of Mull in Scotland, 

 in about 56J° N. Lat., a plant-bed has been discovered con- 



