,S58 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



Since then the known flora of the Potomac formation has been 

 greatly increased by further discoveries, and an unbroken series 

 from the oldest to the newest beds brought to light — in the latter 

 the dicotyledonous element largely predominates. 



Marquis Saporta called attention not long after Prof. Fontaine's 

 discovery to the existence of peculiar forms in the Lower Creta- 

 ceous of Portugal, some of which he referred to his group of 

 Proangiosperms while others represented true Dicotyledons. 

 These beds are probably of the age of the Gault, that is Middle 

 Cretaceous. It was found that other collections from older l^eds 

 also contained dicotyledons, and in 1891 Saporta published a 

 paper on the subject. 



Professor Ward, comparing the Jurassic flora of Portugal with 

 the Potomac beds, concludes as follows : — " But the special 

 interest which these comparisons have in this place is the intimate 

 bond which they furnish between the late Jurassic of Portugal 

 (supposed to correspond closel}' with the Kimmeridge Clays of 

 England, but perhaps running up into the Portland beds and 

 thus closely approaching the Purbeck, which has been treated in 

 this paper as part of the Wealden) and the oldest Cretaceous of 

 America, which some geologists in this country make to extend 

 some distance into the Jurassic, but which is here treated as a 

 Cretaceous deposit." 



Earliest Dicotyledons in Australia. 



The fossils of the Oxley beds are well developed dicotyledons, 

 quite equal in development to those found in the Upper Creta- 

 ceous in Europe and North America. The Oxley beds are near 

 the top of the Ipswich Coal Measures, which are supposed to be 

 at latest Jurassic in age. The difficulty of reconciling the fact of 

 the full development of the dicotyledonous type in Australia with 

 the very archaic rudimentary types of the same age in North 

 America which are mentioned by Lester Ward, struck me ver}^ 

 forcibly, and as in the western parts of the Colon}' it had been 

 shown that the Lower Cretaceous beds lie, conformably, or at an 

 angle not distinguishable, upon the beds below them, 1 thought 



