president's address. 653 



identification from leaves. Baron Ettingshausen's conclusions are 

 as follows : — He finds 98 species representing Cryptogams, Mono- 

 cotyledons, Gymnosperms and Dicotyledons; and as he says the 

 most important general result is this : — 



" The Tertiary Flora of extra-tropical Australia is, as regards 

 character, essentially different from the present living flora of 

 Australia ; nor does it closely resemble, in general, any other 

 living flora. On the other hand, it shows the mixed character of 

 the Tertiary Floras of Europe, the Arctic Regions, North America, 

 and probably all the Tertiary Floras. It has also much more 

 similarity to the Tertiary Floras at present known than to the 

 existing flora of Australia. The characteristic plants of Australia 

 are but feebl}^ represented." 



He finds such genera of the northern hemisphere as Myrica, 

 B'itula, Alnus, Quercus, Fagus and SaHx represented. Of these 

 we have at the present day Fagus only. There are other genera of 

 East Indian origin, which is not to be wondered at, as we have 

 such at the present day; but he also finds species of MagnoHa 

 allied to North American forms; Bo nbax of tropical America and 

 s)m3 Oceanic genera which I think are much more doubtful. 



These and other conditions seem to indicate to him an original 

 universal flora in Tertiary times to which all the present existing 

 floras of the earth may be traced back, and the evolution of the 

 present flora from the Tertiary flora took place through the 

 differentiation of the "floral climate" — whatever that ma}^ mean 

 — which, however, was effected differently in different parts of 

 the globe. (See History of the Development of the Vegetation 

 of the Earth. Sitzungsb. der Acad, der Wiss. Wien). 



As already referred to, further investigation has been made by 

 Baron Ettingshausen as to some fossil plant remains found when 

 excavating some railway cuttings near Brisbane rather more than 

 three years ago. This gentleman made a preliminary investiga- 

 tion of them and submitted a report to the Imperial Academy 

 of Sciences at Vienna on the 13th April, 1893. The presence 

 of many of the Tertiary forms is apparent, and among them 



