74 - EDWARD AV. BERRY 



northern origin and Nothofagus as having originated independ- 

 ently on the broad bosom of the Antarctic continent, from whence 

 it spread northward into southern South America on the one 

 hand, Tasmania and eastern AustraUa on the other, and to 

 New Zealand by a third route from the south northward. Such 

 a theory would be in accord with many recent discussions of 

 geographical distribution. It would almost certainly be sug- 

 gested by plant geographers who lacked any knowledge of ante- 

 cedent floras by the peculiar distribution of the existing species of 

 Nothofagus, namel}^ — a dozen very similar species about equally 

 distributed between southern South America (Chile and Terra 

 del Fuego), south Australia and Tasmania, and New Zealand. 



This attractive hypothesis is, I believe, entirely erroneous, 

 and for the following reasons : — It would entirely fail to account 

 for the distribution of Fagus, which is clearly of northern origin 

 and yet is associated with Nothofagus in the Tertiary of South 

 America, Graham Land and Australia. Moreover what appears 

 to be true species of Nothofagus occur in the Oligocene of Greece 

 (Fagus pygmaea Unger and Fagus chamaephegos Unger). If on 

 the other hand Nothofagus was of Holarctic origin it would reach 

 these antipodean lands along with Fagus. A number of elements 

 of the Dakota sandstone flora (Upper Cretaceous) are found in 

 the later Cretaceous of Argentina, showing that migration from 

 North America into southern South America was not only pos- 

 sible but actually took place during the Upper Cretaceous and 

 all lines of evidence — bathymetric, tectonic, petrographic and 

 paleontologic, indicate that South America was in direct con- 

 nection with Antarctica." The Australian species would have 

 reached Australia, Fagus and Nothofagus together or in successive 

 migrations either from southeastern Asia or from Antarctica 

 over the then existing land connections. 



New Zealand offers more difficulties but there is a really vast 

 amount of both paleobotanical and botanical evidence . (the 

 latter discussed by Alfred Russell Wallace in his Island Life) in- 

 dicating a common origin for the Australian and New Zealand 

 flora. There may have been a direct interchange of floral 

 elements by way of the now sunken lands indicated by the 

 topography of the ocean bottom, and by the coral islands 



