president's address. 853- 



became united, and an interchange of forms thereafter took place. 

 The land connecting La Plata and Patagonia with South Eastern 

 Asia he calls " Archinotis." He says the bridge between South 

 America and Africa broke up before that between India and 

 Africa, so that when the middle and southern South American 

 regions became united no neotropical African types could migrate 

 to Australia. 



The author then discusses the various methods by which plants 

 and animals are understood to be transported across the ocean, 

 and throws doubt upon the whole theory of oceanic islands. Speak- 

 ing of the island group of Ferdinand Noronha, he sajs, " It is 

 certain that on the main island birds scatter the seeds of berries, 

 fruits, &c., but when wind and birds do not cavise the spread of the 

 plants even from one island to another the distance of a gunshot, 

 how can one believe that this means of distribution is effective 

 across gaps of hundreds or thousands of kilometers ?" The author 

 disputes the fact of the Andean migration; he says there is not 

 a species common to the Californian Sierra Nevada and the 

 Andes. With regard to the exchange of plants of higher latitudes 

 north and south of the equator, he is of opinion that formerly 

 these must have been capable of existing in warm regions as well 

 as in cold. Even now Ranunculus, Polygumini, Stellaria mediay 

 Samohis Valerandi, Veronica anagaUis, Parietaria delnlis, ifec, are 

 not sensitive to climate. He says that formerly plants were not 

 so restricted by climate, so that the following genera are found 

 together in the Upper Pliocene of Niederrad and Hochst am 

 Main : Juglans, Aesculus, Carya, Liqiiidarnber, Corylus aveUana, 

 Betula alba, Ficea vulgaris, and the alpine Finns cemhra and 

 Finns montaivi. The author then discusses the distribution of 

 various genera, Fodocarpus and other southern Coniferce, CocoSy 

 Nipa and other Palms, Cwpulifercn, etc. He is of opinion that 

 the completeness of the Indo- Australian territory must have been 

 longer retained than the connection of Australia and New Zealand,, 

 and he says that if the genera Canis and ISns, the Muridce, etc.,. 

 could push into New Guinea and Australia, the connection with 

 Asia must have lasted into the Miocene. During the whole 

 53c 



