president's address. 1235 



B. Clarke appears to have assigned them to a more recent period. 

 Amongst the auriferous drifts from which specimens have been 

 described by Baron von Mueller in the Geological Survey of 

 Victoria, no fruits or leaves of Eucalyptus have been mentioned, 

 and indeed such is the difficulty of determining the species without 

 ;i specimen of the flowers, and fruit, that it would be some- 

 what hazardous to offer any opinion from leaves only. From 

 a consideration of the fossils, so far as yet known and 

 described, it is not chimerical to affirm, that, in the Eocene and 

 Miocene periods, and in the Pliocene also, the climate of Victoria 

 and New South Wales was different from what it now is, being 

 probably adapted to the growth and perpetuation of tropical and 

 semi-tropical plants, which have long ceased to flourish in these 

 colonies, and whose living representatives are now found in the 

 north and north-eastern portions of Australia or in India. It 

 would appear also that previous to some changes which occurred 

 during the Tertiary period, the genus Eucalyptus which at the 

 present time is so widely spread over the Continent and is almost 

 restricted to it, did not constitute the large forests of Eastern 

 Australia, but that these were composed to a great extent of 

 Sapindaceous, Meliaceous, Capparideous, and other trees which 

 imparted a semi-tropical character to the vegetation. Regarding 

 Western Australia as the grand repository for types purely 

 Australian, it is very remarkable that the fossils now found in 

 auriferous drifts have few or no living representatives in that 

 colony. No species of Meliaceaj, with the exception of Owenia 

 reticulata, has been found there, whilst 32 species occur in New 

 South Wales and Queensland. Of the Sapindacere, Dodoncea, 

 Diplopeltis and Heterodendron only are represented there ; whilst 

 species of 14 genera (of which Cupania and Xephelium are the 

 chief in point of numbers) belong to Eastern Australia. So again 

 as regards the Olacineoi only two species are western, whilst 13 in 

 which two Villaresias are included, are eastern. As but little 

 progress has yet been made in the fossil Botany of Australia, it 

 may be advisable to exercise caution in forming any conclusions 

 too hastily." 

 80 



