1899J ORIGIN OF AUSTRALIAN FLORA 209 



deference, that a fact such as the survival of Lingula through countless 

 ao-es, while multitudes of closely related and equally effective forms 

 have long been extinct, is not devoid of the element of mystery. Such 

 a consideration as that adduced by Professor Drude seems wholly 

 insufficient to outweigh the life -labours of men like Unger and 

 Goeppert, Heer, Ettingshauseu, and others. True, their determina- 

 tions may sometimes be open to objection ; but in such a case as this 

 there seems no alternative but to accept, as correct in the main, the 

 conclusions unanimously recorded by specialists in this branch of the 

 science. When, therefore, one finds in the Australian tertiary flora 

 such characteristically northern genera as Myrica, Bctula, Ainu .s, 

 Qucrcus, Salix, Fagus, Laurus, Magnolia, all of which, with the exception 

 of Fagus, now scantily represented on the south-eastern highlands, 

 and possibly of Qucrcus as mentioned above, have vanished like the 

 fantasies of a dream, one cannot repress a feeling of wonder that such a 

 phrase as " the Scandinavian privilege of ubiquity " should ever have 

 been called into use. Most of the above genera, if present distribution 

 is to be relied on, and present distribution is the main support of the 

 northern predominance theory, have had their origin in the most 

 extensive land area of the globe, where, according to Mr. Darwin, com- 

 petition has been most severe and long-continued, and moreover they 

 are still important elements in the northern flora. On the current 

 hypothesis these favoured forms should have entirely or partially 

 eliminated their competitors, instead of which they have themselves 

 <>one to the wall. But besides this we are not entitled to assume that 

 Australia was inhabited in earlier tertiary times by no other " northern " 

 genera than have already been found in tertiary deposits there. It is 

 also inconceivable that herbaceous vegetation did not then exist side by 

 side with the shrubs and trees whose harder parts have ensured their 

 preservation in the fossil condition. But before we are in a position 

 to state what this herbaceous vegetation really was, Australian tertiary 

 deposits must be examined in the way in which Mr. Clement Iieid is 

 now examining our tertiary beds with such interesting results, for the 

 ordinary organs of herbs are of too fragile and evanescent a nature to 

 allow of their preservation, and recourse must be had to the evidence 

 yielded by fruits, and especially by seeds, involving a tedious opera- 

 tion indeed, but one which must be undertaken before we can feel 

 •ourselves on safe ground. Meanwhile we cannot close our eyes to the 

 possibility that a fair number of herbaceous species belonging to 

 " northern " genera may have become extinct in Australia since the 

 time when the " primitive tertiary flora " flourished there. 



And while we recognise how favourable to the northern flora are 

 the geographical and climatal conditions of Northern Europe at the 

 present time, it should not be forgotten that such was not always the 

 case. In Miocene times, for instance, when Greenland enjoyed a 

 climate similar to that of Southern Europe to-day, where was the 



14 NAT. SC. VOL. XV. NO. 91. 



