154 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



DECENT PAL^O-BOTANICAL RE- 

 SEARCHES IN VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA).* 



WITHIN the last four or &ve years a consider- 

 able amount of light has been thrown upon 

 the Tertiary flora which flourished in the south- 

 eastern portions of the continent of Australia, 

 previous to and during the deposition of the 

 matrix of a large portion of the alluvial gold which 

 has been obtained from that auriferous region. 

 Through the researches of Baron von Mueller, 

 M.D., E.R.S., with material collected and supplied 

 by Dr. R. B. Smyth, F.G.S., the energetic Secre- 

 tary of the Victorian Mining Department, and Mr. 

 Mining-Surveyor Lynch, a fine series of fruits and 

 seed-vessels have been described, and their affinities 

 determined, so far as the remains would permit, 

 from one of the " deep-leads " of the colony. The 

 results of these investigations have appeared from 

 time to time in the "Reports of the Mining Sur- 

 veyors and Registrars of the Colony of Victoria," 

 accompanied by lithographic illustrations of the 

 fossils, executed by the lithographer to the Depart- 

 ment, Mr. R. Shepherd. An interesting paper on 

 the same subject was read before the Geological 

 Society, but was published only in abstract. 



The fossils in question were obtained from the 

 auriferous "wash-dirt" of the Haddon "lead," 

 Smythe's Creek, Smythesdale, county of Grenville, 

 and were found at the bottom of the " wash-dirt," 

 near the up-turned edges of the bed-rock (Silurian). 

 This stratum, at both spots at which the fruits were 

 found, and separated from one another only by a 

 short distance, was succeeded by a gravelly drift 

 containing trunks of trees. This, in one instance, 

 was overlaid by alternations of clay and sandy drift, 

 in the other by similar beds, and a thick bed (100 ft.) 

 of basalt ("blue-stone"), giving respectively sec- 

 tions of 76 ft. and 156 ft. 



Coniferfe are represented by a usually five-celled 

 woody strobilus, to which the name of Spomhjlodro- 

 bus {S. Simjthii), E. v. M., has been given. The 

 generic affinities of thispentamerous conifer place it 

 near Solemstrobus, Bowerbank, from the London 

 clay, but, unlike the latter, the five fruit-valves are 

 unkeeled, and there is a considerable columellar 

 development not seen in the Loudon clay genus 

 The last-named character is considered by Baron 

 von Mueller as sufficient to separate it from all 

 cupressineous genera, fossil or recent. 



The Saphiducece are perhaps represented by 

 spherical or oval two- or three-celled fruits, the 

 valves of which separate completely to the base, and 

 are externally rough and deeply wrinkled from ver- 

 rucular protuberances. Von Mueller has named 



* Reports of the Mining: Surveyors and Registrars of the 

 Colony of Victoria, for the Quarters ending March 31st 1871 • 

 June 30th, 1871 ; September 30th, l8;i ; September 30th', 18/3 ■ 

 December 31st, 1873. Melbourne: By Authority. 



these Phymatocaryon {P. MacJcayi), and consider 

 that they also approach London clay forms, viz., 

 Cupanoides, Tricarpellites, and TFethereUia. 



A series of globular one-celled bony fruits, deeply 

 perforated at the base by an oval aperture, and not 

 clearly related to any known genus of recent or 

 fossil plants, are described under the name of 

 Trematocaryon [T. McLellani), E. v. M., and are 

 demonstrated as possessing characters in common 

 with both Verhenacefs and Sapindacea, but that the 

 balance appears to weigh in favour of a reference to 

 the former family. 



The next genus of this interesting genus is that 

 announced by Baron von Mueller as Rhjtidotheca 

 (P. LyncJiii), for the reception of elongate and 

 attenuate, five solid- valved fruits, wrinkled or rough 

 at the dorsal portion, and without a columella or 

 free central axis. These are supposed to have 

 belonged to a meliaceous tree, possessing an out- 

 ward resemblance to the fruit of Flindersia Strze- 

 leckiana, P.M., but probably more closely allied to 

 the satin-wood tree {Chloroxylon) . 



Under the name of Plesiocapparis (P. prised), F- 

 V. M., is described a large, one-celled, depressed 

 and globular fruit, having a diameter of two inches, 

 and a hard, almost bony, pericarp. The form of 

 this fruit and shape of the seeds indicate, perhaps 

 deceptively, the Baron remarks, a plant allied to 

 the caper-bush {Capparis), approaching perhaps the 

 C. Mitchelli, Lindley, an Australian desert tree> 

 found existing from the Murray River to the Gulf 

 of Carpenteria, a range of 20° of latitude. 



So far as a small amount of material would admit, 

 the presence of proteaceau plants in the gold drifts 

 has been established. Large round or ovate one- 

 celled fruits, with a thick and hard nutshell, to 

 which Baron von Mueller has given the name of 

 Celyphina [G. McCoyi), appear to indicate a tree 

 closely allied to Helicia. This supposition is borne 

 out by the occurrence of other bony compressed 

 rounded fruits, smooth and bivalved, measuring 

 about two-thirds of an inch, and distinguished 

 under the name of Conchotheca (C. rotundata), with 

 a general resemblance to the fruits of some tropical 

 Gervillece, but still differing from them. 



Einally, the term Odontocaryon (0. Macregorii), 

 P. V. M., is applied to certain fruits of undetermined 

 affinity, ovato-globular, uni-locular, and terminated 

 by four large unequal teeth, and derived "probably 

 from a large evergreen tree," whilst that 'oi 

 Pe)iteime (comprising three species, is given to 

 certain five-valved, ovate or globose fruits, with 

 exceedingly thick and woody valves, and without a 

 central axis. The general conclusion to be arrived 

 at by Baron Mueller's very interesting investiga- 

 tions amongst these vegetable fossils of the gold 

 drifts appears to be that, at the time of the deposi- 

 tion of the sediments in question there existed in 

 that part of Australia now comprised within the 



