Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada

Abstract

ALTHOUGH this is only a catalogue of names and localities, it is a work of much interest and one that has been greatly needed by European botanists and botanical geographers. The flora of the north temperate zone in both hemispheres is so very similar in general character that nearly half of the genera of the Canadian area and a large number of the species reach to it all the way from Britain across Europe and through Siberia, and the remarkable longitudinal differentiation of the flora of the United States renders it a matter of much interest to be able to trace out the dispersion of the species through the more northern areas of the Continent. The “Flora Boreali-Americana” of Sir Wm. Hooker is now forty years old, and all that has since been worked out about the Canadian species and their distribution has never been put together and published so that it was available for general use. The first portion of the present Catalogue, which was issued in 1883, contained the Polypetalous natural orders; including naturalisations the number of Polypetalous genera was 243, and of species 907. The present part contains the Gamopetalae, and carries up the number of genera to 498, and of species to 1811. So that the total number of flowering plants now known in British North America may be estimated at about 3000 species against 10,000 or 12,000 now known in the United States. One of the most remarkable points about the Canadian flora is how extremely few species enter into it that are not found in the United States. The general question of the characteristics of the North American flora was fully discussed by Dr. Asa Gray in an address to the biological section of the British Association at Montreal, which was published in the issue for November, 1884, of the American Journal of Science. Two of its leading characteristics as compared with Europe are the abundant development of peculiar types of Compositæ and Ericaceæ. It is to this present catalogue that we ust turn for full details on such matters as these in application to the northern area. One of the most curious instances of a locality for a well-marked plant widely distant from its main area is furnished by the occurrence of Calluna vulgaris in very small quantity in Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island, and Nova Scotia. It is not known on the American continent, and the genus Erica is entirely absent. A large number of common European plants, such as Bellis perennis, Chrys anthemum Leucanthemum, Tussilago Farfara, Hyoscyamus niger, and Anagallis arvensis are fully naturalised in Canada. Some British species, such as Gentiana Amarella and Hieraciiim umbellatum are represented in Canada by varieties mostly readily distinguishable from the European type. Of plants alpine in their European range which are widely spread in British North America we have instances in Loiseleuria procumbens, Arctostaphyllos alpina, Linncea borealis, Lobelia Dortmanna, Vaccinium uliginosum, and V. Vitis-idæa; and of plants of wide European and British dispersion at a lower level in Campanula rotundifolia, Achillea Millefolium, Viburnum Opulus, Pyrola minor, and Andromeda polifolia. Mr. Macoun has consulted Dr. Asa Gray and Dr. Sereno Watson on all points of doubtful identification, and used the same nomenclature and standard of specific limitation.

Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada.

Alfred R. C. Selwyn "Catalogue of Canadian Plants. Part II. Gamopetalæ." By John Macoun, M.A., F.L.S., F.R.S.C. 8vo, 200 pp. (Montreal: Dawson Brothers, 1884.)