New-York tribune., 1881-09-25
SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPE.
FOSSIL PLANTS.

IN his address before the British Science AS
] s9ciaton on the geographical distribution of
pant, Sr Joseph ID: Hooker gave a sketch of
.nu discovery ot fossil plants whose rcpresen-
UttiVes are now only found in warm latitudes,
ana the ight thus thrown upon the past physi-
cai condition of the earth. TO Arctic travellers
ana Voyagers this discovery was wholly due
Of these he believed Sir John Richardson was
4 the earliest for he, in the year lS4S, when
] descending the Mackenzie River to the Polar
pea ID search OF the Franklin Expedition, found
sot leaves of forest trees belonging to such
4 genera as the maple poplar, taxodum oak
o,c. In the narrative of his journey Richardson
mentions these fossils and figures some of
them; and in subsequent work he spcaks of
a them as leaves of deciduous trees belonging
10 genera which do not i'll the present day come
80 80 lar ar north on the American continent by ten
OF twelve degrees of latitude" This discovery
was I0lioWed, IN 1898, by the still more re-
markabe one by Captain Mcclure and Sir
r AieXanuer 9 Armstrong during another search
acorns m 1r "Ind iTamkiIn Of pine cones and
ttt. th 90 n. at an elevation of 800 feet above
I the sea level. And again in 1884 DR.. Lyall
@ roulld extensive accumulatons OF similar fossils
near Discoe IN Greenland Qat. 100 N.) during
/ the return OF Sir Edward Belcher's searching
jeXpedtion., Nor are these fossils confined to
America: they have been found in Spitzbergen,
Il, H. "ioeTia anu III many other localities within
thc oitr area as well us south of it, proving
nat forests OF deciduous trees, in all respects
IKE th0se ot the existing forests OF the warm
TmpeiaIe regions, approached to within ten
degrees of the Pole. The first of these collcc-
uons critically examined was DR.. Lyall's; it
was communicated to Professor Her, of Zurich
] the highest authority on the fora of the Ter
oary pcrlod, and described by him, as were
aSo subsequently, all the other collections
| Drought froin the Arctic regions.
me examination of these fossil leaves re-
Nealed ihe wonderful fact that not only did
nley oeiong to genera of trees common to the
forests OF all the three northern continents
Such as planes, becches. ashes, NAPLES. etc.
nuV tlat they also included what are now cx-
I'emely rare and even local genera, rs scquoia
shquid-ambeT, magnolia, tulip-trees .siugko.
etc. proving that the forests were of II more
miNtU character than any now existing. Thcsel
results opened up new channel for nNcsti-
'Satlhg the problem of distribution, and the
lirNt naturalist 10 enter il rs a hOtanist, Dr Asa
gray who pursued 1t with brilliant results,
Vhpollcu III series OF memoirs on the Vcgpta-
uon OF the United States of America When
StudNlng the collections of Japanese plants
nlouSht by the officers of WilkcSS cApeditiun
Jr Gray found cumulative evidence of The
Strong affinity between the fora of Eastern
ASia ana Eastern North America, To the eXclu-
SION oi me western hall of that continent and
also that Europe and Western Asia did not
snare ~ tins affinity. But what especially at
tractGd hlS attention was, that this affinity did
not oepdd only ON a few identical on repre-
sentative genera, but upon many endemic gen
era OF exceptional character, and often consist
ihS oil only two almost Identical species. This
'tu 10 u rigorous comparison of those plants
WIN me loNSllS from the Arctic REGIONS whose
,aihntcS had been determined by Hcer, and
with others which had occn meanwhile accumu
iMtlng IN the United States and had been de
scUbcd by Lesquereux aud the result was
Nhat may be called an abridged outline his
tory ol the fora OF North America in its rcla-
.lohs To TIE physical geography of that coun-
NY Hom the CretaceouS To the present tine.