Mueller. — On the Ancient Connections of N.Z. 429 



and especially that portion called the Sierra do Oratorio, has 

 still Araucarias, whose next of kin is at present found only in 

 the Australian region. The readiest explanation of this is 

 that the American and Australian botanical regions are of the 

 same age as Australia itself. A part of south Africa must 

 also be included, especially that part in which the funda- 

 mental form of Proteacece is found. 



It should be also mentioned that the Pacific shores of 

 America, not only in Chili (and perhaps Peru), but also in 

 Lower California and as far as north of British Columbia, bear 

 a flora which is mixed with forms which to some extent 

 remind one of Australian types — a heterogeneous combination 

 differing essentially from the vegetable world east of the 

 Eocky Mountains. 



But to which geological period must we refer this older 

 flora ? I am of opinion that the presence of Araucaria in 

 Brazil should lead us on the right track. When we remember 

 the important part these remarkable plants played in the 

 Carboniferous and later periods, it would seem that they have 

 been here preserved to the present day from, perhaps, the 

 youngest of these periods. Similar observations can be made 

 on some mosses. It is only a short time since I obtained 

 from a bryologist of Bio Grande do Sul a moss from the Sierra 

 Geral which so strikingly corresponded with the true Austra- 

 lian Dicnemonella that I felt uncertain whether a mistake 

 had not been made. Soon afterwards my nephew — who is 

 collecting in that place — sent me the same moss from the 

 heights of the Sierra. I was exceedingly astonished at re- 

 ceiving from the Araucaria forests of Brazil a moss type which 

 I should without any hesitation have assigned to Australia 

 if I had been asked to name its native country. 



Our phyto-geographers have long since known the relation 

 of Chili and Tierra del Fuego to Australia, but not many con- 

 clusions have been drawn about it. No doubt many secrets 

 are still hidden in South America, the investigation of which 

 may very likely open out new ways of considering the faunas 

 and floras of countries, perhaps even their mineralogy and 

 geology. When speaking of the Fuegians, Von Martins says 

 that here one stands before one of the many mysteries which 

 still remain to be solved in the ethnography of South America. 

 It is my firm conviction that the present flora and fauna 

 of the world contain many forms belonging to very old 

 periods. I am not thinking of the hippopotamus, the giraffe, 

 or the Australian types of animals. No doubt there are living 

 organisms the origin of which reaches back far beyond the 

 Tertiary era — such, for instance, as the singular Cycadea; of 

 Australia, south Africa, Japan, &c. The genus Lingula, 

 belonging to the Brachiopoda, is one of those which from the 



