The Geological History of Plants

by Sir John William Dawson

"The period of great cold, during which arctic ice extended far into temperate regions, was not favorable to vegetable life. But in some localities we have stratified clays with plant-remains later than the Glacial epoch, yet indicating that the great cold had not then entirely disappeared. In the lacustrine beds at Holderness is found a small birch (Betula nana, L.), now limited in Great Britain to some of the mountains of Scotland, but found in the arctic regions of the Old and New World and on Alpine districts in Europe, and with it Prunus padus, L., Quercus robur, L., Corylus avellana, L., Alnus glutinosa, L., and Pinus sylvestris, L. In the white clay-beds at Bovey Tracey of the same age there occur the leaves of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, L., three species of willow, viz., Salix cinerea, L., S. myrtilloides, L., and S. polaris, Wahl., and in addition to our Alpine Betula nana, L., the more familiar B. alba, L. Two of these plants have been lost to our flora from the change of climate that has taken place, viz., Salix myrtilloides, L., and S. polaris, Wahl.; and Betula nana, L., has retreated to the mountains of Scotland. Three others (Dryas octopetala, L., Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, L., and Salix herbacea, L.) have withdrawn to the mountains of northern England, Wales, and Scotland, while the remainder are still found scattered over the country. Notwithstanding the diverse physical conditions to which these plants have been subjected, the remains preserved in these beds present no characters by which they can be distinguished from the living representatives of the species."

One of the instances referred to is very striking. At Bovey Tracey the arctic beds rest directly on those holding the rich, warm temperate flora of the Eocene; so that here we have the evidence of fossil plants to show the change from the climate of the Eocene to that of arctic lands, and the modern vegetation to indicate the return of a warm temperature.

In Canada, in the Pleistocene beds known as the Leda clays, intervening between the lower boulder clay and the Saxicava sand, which also holds boulders, there are beds holding fossil plants, in some places intermixed with sea-shells and bones of marine fishes, showing that they were drifted into the sea at a time of submergence. These remains are boreal rather than arctic in character, and with the remains of drift-wood often found in the boulder deposits serve to indicate that there were at all times oases of hardy life in the glacial deserts, just as we find these in polar lands at the present day. I condense from a paper on these plants[EA] the following facts, with a few additional notes:

[EA] “Canadian Naturalist,” 1866.

The importance of all information bearing on the temperature of the Post-pliocene period invests with much interest the study of the land-plants preserved in deposits of this age. Unfortunately, these are few in number, and often not well preserved. In Canada, though fragments of the woody parts of plants occasionally occur in the marine clays and sands, there is only one locality which has afforded any considerable quantity of remains of their more perishable parts. This is the well-known deposit of Leda clay at Green’s Creek, on the Ottawa, celebrated for the perfection in which the skeletons of the capelin and other fishes are preserved in the calcareous nodules imbedded in the clay. In similar nodules, contained apparently in a layer somewhat lower than that holding the ichthyolites, remains of land-plants are somewhat abundant, and, from their association with shells of Leda glacialis, seem to have been washed down from the land into deep water. The circumstances would seem to have been not dissimilar from those at present existing in the northeast arm of Gaspé Basin, where I have dredged from mud now being deposited in deep water, living specimens of Leda limatula, mixed with remains of land-plants.

The following are the species of plants recognised in these nodules:

1. Drosera rotundifolia, Linn. In a calcareous nodule from Green’s Creek, the leaf only preserved. This plant is common in bogs in Canada, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, and thence, according to Hooker, to the Arctic circle. It is also European.

2. Acer spicatum, Lamx. (Acer montanum, Aiton.) Leaf in a nodule from Green’s Creek. Found in Nova Scotia and Canada, also at Lake Winnipeg, according to Richardson.

3. Potentilla Canadensis, Linn. In nodules from Green’s Creek; leaves only preserved. I have had some difficulty in determining these, but believe they must be referred to the species above named, or to P. simplex, Michx., supposed by Hooker and Gray to be a variety. It occurs in Canada and New England, but I have no information as to its range northward.