(Abstract) 
Isolation and Endemism in Northeastern America and their 
Relation to the Age and Area Hypothesis 
M. L. Fernald 
The speaker emphasized the neglect by the originator of the 
hypothesis of Age and Area of many historic and edaphic factors which 
have controlled the dispersal of plants over the world. In illus¬ 
tration he discussed certi in unglaciated mountain ranges centering on 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence: the Bhickshock Lit s. of Gaspe and the Long 
Range of Newfoundland. Analysis of the floras of these areas shows 
that the ancient flora which persisted on the unglaciated regions 
through the Glacial Period, but which is not found on the surrounding 
mainland, has a much more limited range both in Gaspe and Newfoundland 
and outside ("wide*’ range) than has the flora which has migrated into 
these regions since the receding of the glacial ice from the surround¬ 
ing country. This is the opposite of what Age and Area would predict. 
One of Willis's deductions from Age and Area asserts that endemic 
species are the youngest species in any region and that they have very 
local ranges because they have not had time to spread.. The speaker 
showed that the very localized endemics of Gaspe and Newfoundland 
have no allies nearer than the Rocky Mts, or the Pacific coast and that 
they are ancient species now isolated from their allies; but that in 
western Nova Beotia, which received all its plants since the Glacial 
Period, Nature has not had time to evolve endemic species. In regions 
which are geologically young, for instance the Atlantic Coastal Plain 
of North America, there are many endemic genera, such as Golden Club 
