BY R. VON LENDENFELD, PH.D. 725 



No peculiar or remarkable form of freshwater Rhizopod has 

 been found" in Australia. 



Of course it is not possible to say whether the species enumerated 

 are indigenous or not. 



We could easily imagine that some specimens of one or the other 

 might have been brought in the freshwater in ships or in other 

 ways. We can, however, not assume that there were no freshwater 

 Rhizopoda in Australia before the advent of Europeans, and so it 

 seems that some of these species are indigenous. 



It is impossible that they should travel through the wide 

 expanse of salt water which divides Australia from the other 

 Continents. 



We cannot suppose that they can have developed inde- 

 pendently of each other, because they are so very similar in detail, 

 and must therefore assume that they are animals of very great 

 geological age, and that they have remained unchanged all the time, 

 since the laudbridge between Australia and any other Continent 

 disappeared. 



The fact that no Rhizopods peculiar to Australia have been 

 found, seems to indicate that no recent spontaneous generation has 

 occuri'ed. 



