BY F. RATTE, M.E. 161 



(Phcenicopsis, Trichojniijs, and Czekanowskia), allied to Salishuria, 

 about which I have no litei^ature at hand ; and Marquis de Saporta, 

 in the above-mentioned contribution, (1) even doubts whether 

 Salisburia concinyia of Professor Heer, is really a Ginkgo, as its 

 resemblance with tlie genus Baiera, might, according to this author, 

 be due to a recurrence of form appearing in distinct and parallel 

 groups, originally issued from a common ancestral stock. 



I will not follow the author in his sketch of the affinities and 

 migrations of the different species ; I will simply quote, without 

 translating, any paragraph dealing with the Australian fossil, 

 Salisburia antarctica, or tracing the genus further back than our 

 triassic species. 



At the same time, as a matter of reference, it will not 

 probably be out of place to mention that IVIr. Feistmantel has 

 described three species from the Gondwana series (Foss. Flora 

 Gondwana, Vol. IV. p. 49, pi. III. &c.) 



Now, from Marquis de Saporta, I give the following extracts : 



" Un fait singulier est venu devoiler recemment 1' existence a 

 r autre extremite du globe, sur le sol australien, d' un quatrieme 

 point aloi's habite par le meme genre Salisburia. Le moment 

 precis de cette colonisation, indice d'une tres-vaste diffusion 

 anterieure due a la grande longevite du type, ce moment doit 

 etre rapporte au lias ou meme au lias inferieur. On voit par la 

 qu' a 1' exemple des Araucaria dans le pass6 et conformement a 

 ce que le hetre (fagus) nous laisse voir maintenaut, les Salisburia 

 etaient repandus a la fois dUns les deux hemispheres, vei's le 

 milieu des temps secondaires, et qu'ils s' etendaient au-dela du 

 tropique du Capricorne, aussi bien qu' a F interieur du cercle 

 polaire arctique." (Loc. cit. p. 157.) 



And further :— 



" L'Australie a fourni une seule espece, que nous nommerons 

 Salisburia antai'ctica" (Loc. cit. p. 203.) 



This Australian species thus, it appeal's, comes back to us 

 indirectly, and is still unpublished at the time de Saporta writes ; 



(1) G. de Saporta. Les Variations morphologiques d'un typede Plantes. 

 " La Nature " 26 Ao1it 1882, p. 203. 

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