io8 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



types of plants which would point to a direct connection of the most 

 southern portions of America and Africa. It seems, therefore, most 

 likely that these common types have been derived by way of Australia ; 

 that there was a land-connection between Australia and temperate 

 South America after the connection between South Africa and 

 Australia was broken. The evidence for this statement is chiefly to 

 be derived from zoo-geographical facts, and it seems that South 

 America did not get these plant-types until after the time when mar- 

 supials had reached Australasia, and got a chance of spreading from 

 Australasia to South America. One fact seems particularly con- 

 vincing, namely, the finding of the remains of the Tasmanian wolf 

 in Patagonia, remains which cannot -be distinguished from the present 

 living species. 



Coming back now to our South Western Flora, it seems 

 strange that it should not have had a better chance of spreading 

 eastwards, for although its main distribution now is in the region of 

 winter rains, there can be no reasonable doubt that left to itself 

 it would have a very good chance in the region of uncertain rains, at 

 least as far as East London, and probably beyond it. Here it meets with 

 competitors from tropical Africa, and it appears that these are later 

 intruders. There seems to be same evidence that the typically western 

 flora once spread much further east as far as East Pondoland. Whether 

 the receding of these elements is due to earth movements along the 

 coast, which created conditions that allowed the tropical African 

 flora to penetrate further west, or whether it is due to other causes, 

 is at the present time difficult to decide. In any case, there is no 

 doubt that such earth movements have taken place, and with the 

 lowering of the mountains since Cretaceous times, it 

 is quite possible that the tropical African coast flora 

 has a better chance of fighting its way westward than 

 it had in Tertiary times. Whether the majority of the carroid 

 elements of the flora of South Africa can be referred back to the 

 time when there was a connection between South Africa and 

 Australia is very doubtful ; on the whole, their affinities seem to 

 indicate that these elements are younger. As one would expect also 

 from a consideration of geological evidence, there seems to be no 

 doubt that the conditions favourable for such plants were only gradu- 

 allv evolved since Cretaceous times. Many of them have represen- 

 tatives in Australia, but in such small numbers, that it is quite 

 possible that they were derived in Australia from the north, and the 

 aflSnities of them are, generally speaking, more with tropical plants 

 and even plants of other countries, thus very little that is definite can 

 at present be said about them. Some of them must be looked upon 

 as mere outliers of the tropical African Flora, and the question of 

 their origin resolves itself generally into the question of the origin 

 of the tropical African Flora. I will deal with this question very 

 briefly, though it must be pointed out that apart from the South- 

 western Flora and the types which may be included amongst the 

 carroid plants, the remainder of South African plants probably 



