1899] ORIGIN OF AUSTRALIAN FLORA 277 



Tasmania (Eocene), not met with earlier than the Pliocene age. 1 Mr. 

 Wallace, it will be observed, adopts the conventional notions based on 

 present distribution to which objection has already been made. On this 

 view, if an Australian genus or species has the Indo-Malayan facies 

 and is found outside Australia, or is closely related to extra-Australian 

 forms, it must have migrated into its present habitat ; but the palpable 

 errors into which Mr. Wallace has been led while formulating what he 

 believes to be the true explanation of the case, may perhaps lead us to 

 suspect that there is something wrong in the inference from present 

 distribution whereupon his views are founded. 



Professor Tate's conclusions are also based upon notions as to 

 present distribution. He considers the Australian flora to be composed 

 of two elements, an endemic and an immigrant. The endemic flora is 

 of three kinds : Euronotian in the south and east, Autochthonian 

 in the south-west, and Eremian in the desert. The immigrant flora 

 has two constituents — an Oriental, dominant in the littoral tracts, but 

 mixed there with typical Australian genera, and an Andean, restricted 

 for the most part to the highlands of New South Wales, Victoria and 

 Tasmania, and with this he includes north temperate forms, that is 

 species characteristic of north temperate regions. The Autochthonian 

 element was dismembered in Cretaceous times, and except for possible 

 inter-communication with the Euronotian via the present Eremian region 

 during the period of tertiary submergence, and perhaps, too, by means 

 of land in the south now submerged, it has remained in a state of 

 isolation. The Euronotian element was modified during early tertiary 

 times by the irruption of a primitive cosmopolitan flora. The Andean 

 element was introduced during a glacial period, and since then the 

 Eremian flora has been developed from Autochthonian and Euronotian 

 constituents, largely modified by an incursion of Indian types, while at 

 the same time the Euronotian gained accessions from the Indo-Malayan 

 province, although migrants have probably been received at all times 

 since the specialisation of the flora of the Indo-Malayan province. 



It will be observed that Professor Tate is not content with making 

 Australia a sort of botanical dumping ground during recent times, but 

 that he ascribes a migrant character to the primitive tertiary flora as 

 well. Is there sufficient justification for this ? The primitive tertiary 

 flora makes its appearance to all intents simultaneously in various 

 parts of the earth, in North America, in Europe, at Perim, in Borneo, 

 etc., as well as in Australia, and we have no evidence in any of these 

 cases as to its origin in one of these localities, and of its migration 

 into others. There seems also no conclusive evidence that the western 

 part of Australia was absolutely isolated from the eastern half during 

 earlier tertiary times, and it seems incredible, unless the climate of 

 Western has greatly differed from that of Eastern Australia, that a flora 

 which flourished over such a wide area as we have indicated, shall 



1 Tate, "Inaugural Address," p. 37. 



