rtunately, Dr. White's very interesting remarks on the
British fauna for this reason lose much of the value which they might
otherwise possess.

In his remarkable essay the late Edward Forbes affirms that the flora
peculiar to the west of Ireland, of which the strawberry tree (_Arbutus
unedo_) is the most striking example, and which exhibits such strong
southern affinities, is not only much the most ancient of our island
floras, but that it is actually of miocene age. It migrated to Ireland
from Spain at a very remote period, during which he supposed that a
direct land-connection existed between the two countries. The
destruction of this old land-bridge, he thinks, must have taken place
before the commencement of the Glacial period. Climatal changes during
that time destroyed the mass of the southern flora which had thus
reached Ireland, the survivors being species such as were most hardy
(saxifrages, heaths, etc.), which he considers to be the only relics of
this most ancient portion of our flora.

The northern or Arctic fauna and flora, according to the same author,
established themselves in the British Isles during the Glacial
period--at a time when these were groups of islands in the midst of an
ice-bound sea. Finally, the great mass of our animals and plants
migrated from the Continent to England after the Glacial period. "The
migration of the species," he says, "less speedy of diffusion, which are
now peculiar to England was arrested by the breaking up of the
land-connection between England and Ireland, and thence the famous
deficiencies of the sister isle, as, for instance, its freedom from
reptiles" (p. 10). He is also of opinion, that the separation between
England and the Continent took place at a later date than that between
England and Ireland.

According to Dr. A. R. Wallace (p. 338), we possessed just before and
during the Glacial period "a fauna almost or quite identical with that
of adjacent parts of the Continent, and equally rich in species." But
the submersion, he thinks, which is supposed to have occurred during the
latter part of the Glacial period, destroyed the greater part of the
life of our country. When England again became continental, continues
Dr. Wallace, this fauna was succeeded by an assemblage of animals from
Central Europe. "But sufficient time does not seem to have elapsed for
the migration to have been completed before subsidence again occurred,
cutting off the further influx of pu