148 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



This continent, in tlie secondary period, had gradually sunk 

 beneath the ocean, and only isolated parts of it, among which 

 were the Seychelles Islands, yet remained above water. 

 Nearly all oceanic islands were of volcanic origin, but there 

 were a few here and there that were not entirely volcanic, 

 and contained rocks such as granite. Granite was never 

 exposed, except as the result of denudation, which had been 

 proceeding for a long period, and was only found so exposed 

 in a very few isolated instances. The Se^'chelles he under- 

 stood to be one of these isolated instances. New Zealand 

 was another, and there were a few more in the Atlantic, 

 Such a phenomenon was very rare, and the fact that those 

 rocks existed in the Seychelles, was technical evidence that 

 they were the remains of a continent that once existed. 

 There was no doubt whatever that the islands were remnants 

 of what had once been an extensive continent, and in this 

 fact was to be found a clue to the limited distribution of the 

 Coco-de-Mer. For the development of such a plant, a large 

 area of land was required. Thei"e was no fact in the range 

 of natural history betto" established than that. There could 

 be no doubt that the Coco-de-Mer was developed when it 

 flourished on a large continent — the mesozoic continent. As 

 the land gradually sank beneath the ocean, and the area of 

 dry land became more limited, the distribution of the tree 

 had become limited in a corresponding degree ; and, owing 

 to causes which possibly could not be explained, the Coco-de- 

 Mer had become extinct in all parts of the ancient continent, 

 with the exception of Fraslin. They had similar instances 

 of plants undergoing such changes. There was one island — 

 Kerguelen, upon which not a single tree could be found, and 

 yet under the basalt were to be found the huge trunks of 

 beech and pine ti'ees, three and four feet in girth, together 

 with any amount of coal. This island had formed part of a 

 continent, and as the land had sunk, its conditions had 

 changed until they were such that trees could no longer 

 exist, and had therefore jjerished. The Coco-de-Mer had 

 probably perished in like manner, as all portions of the con- 

 tinent disappeared, until at last its remains were only to be 

 found in Fraslin, and its stumps and roots, that had recently 

 died in the small islands He Ronde and Curieuse. The 

 peculiarities of the geology of the island were easily 

 explained. They were not the result of catastrophies, as 

 General Gordon had supposed, but were caused simply by 

 the island slowly subsiding beneath the ocean. 



