434: Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



is now known. This is a parallel case with the famous Adan- 

 sonia. 



But now conies the best proof. If we look backward for 

 many hundreds of thousands of years, we see an Australian 

 flora growing on the soil of Germany. Unger explained the 

 origin of this flora by imagining the Atlantis as a land bridge 

 for the migration of plants from Australia to Germany. After 

 what has been said above, it is not worth while to criticize 

 this idea. But I myself, from the fact of the former existence 

 of an Australian flora in Europe, draw the conclusion, justified 

 by what has been already said, that this flora was also 

 autochthonous. This conclusion includes another — viz., that 

 all flora-districts of Australian stamp must have been of the 

 same geological age. A single glance at palaeontology shows 

 that each geological period had its own characteristic fauna 

 and flora. What the causes were is still a question, but the 

 fact is established. In many districts outside Australia these 

 types have been preserved separately, and therefore we have 

 to draw a third conclusion — viz., that our present flora-dis- 

 tricts are the result of many preceding geological periods, here 

 more, there less. This is very strikingly confirmed by the 

 fact that the well-known tulip-tree (Liriodendron), with which 

 we first got acquainted as L. tidipifera, from North America, 

 was afterwards discovered in the district of the Yang-tse-kiang 

 Eiver, in China, in the form of L. procaccinii, a species already 

 present in the Miocene of Europe. Consequently all explana- 

 tions of origin by migrations and bridges cease, and we are 

 forced back on the idea of autochthonous causes. And this is 

 only a single example among many other occurrences which 

 altogether negative what has been hitherto said about the 

 transmutation of species. 



Although not an unconditional believer in all the bridges 

 adopted by Dr. Von Jhering, yet I am glad that he admits 

 that there are Australian forms in South America, and con- 

 nects them with those which we find at present in New Zea- 

 land and elsewhere in Australia, and that I meet with the 

 opinion that the present continents have originated from 

 former islands, which were united by successive elevations in 

 different geological periods. I am also very pleased to see 

 that Dr. Yon Jhering is of exactly the same opinion as myself, 

 that Darwinism will belong only to history after a few 

 decennaries, so far as it tries to explain the origin of species. 



