"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 Three others (_Dryas octopetala_, L., _Arctostaphylos uva-ursi_, L., and _Salix herbacea_, L.) have withdrawn to the mountains of northern England, Wales, and Scotland, while the remainder are still found scattered over the country.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.