96 LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



hibited a specimen of the Australian native '* Pituri " bag. For- 

 merly the leaf of the plant was only known, but Baron v. Mueller 

 quite lately has found fruit and flower, and identified the same 

 with Duboma Hopwoodi. — The Secretary read a paper entitled 

 "Botanical Sketch in connection with the geological features of 

 New South Wales," by Mr. Eobert Fitzgerald. The Botany of the 

 above area may be grouped into: — 1. That of the sandstone or 

 poor country represented by the Proteaceoi, Epacridece, and 

 XanthorrhecB ; 2. Eastern slopes of coast range represented by 

 Urticacem and Palnm ; 3. Cold mountain sands represented by 

 Dori/phorcB, Filices, and MyrtacecB ; 4. Interior plains represented by 

 ChenopodiacecB and Composites. How has the distribution of the 

 vegetation originated ? That the Australian continent has risen 

 slowly is gathered fi'om numerous proofs, among others, the 

 horizontpJity of the strata being very manifest. In its uplifting, 

 the outer rim of the continent was slightly more elevated than the 

 interior, and what between a once inland sea, marshes, and mud, 

 and a once probable greater rainfall, Mr. Fitzgerald surmises that 

 to this latter much of the i^hysical features depend. Whence the 

 coal seams ? Are they not the remains of vegetation borne from a 

 continent which has been eastward of Australia ? — New Zealand, 

 Norfolk, and Howe's Island being outliers. The most typical 

 Australian vegetation is the group ProteacecB — a very ancient family, 

 extending back to the secondary period of Geology, from which 

 time Australia apparently has never been submerged. The re- 

 markable close relationship and insensible gradation, so that there 

 is great difficulty in separating species of FAicali/ptus, Banksia, &c., 

 point out that none, or few, of the connecting links have been lost, 

 as must necessarily have been the case had repeated submergence 

 and elevation occurred. Many curious problems as to the fertili- 

 sation of the ProteaceiE, including Stijlldiea and Goodeniacece, yet 

 await investigation. The group of the Palmcc and Urticacece 

 possibly may have had an Asiatic origin, through the Malayan 

 Archipelago. They appear not to be truly of Australia, but them- 

 selves colonists long established. Among the third group Doryphora 

 holds a conspicuous place, and is evidently of Australian derivation. 

 The peculiar vegetation of the fourth group, Chenopods and Com- 

 posite, are rapidly becoming one of the past, and the small species 

 even now are giving place to introduced grasses and weeds. Apart 

 from the four groups in question, as regards the Acacias and 

 Kucalyjjtus, they have the widest distribution and complicated 

 genera. They both appear to be genera at their zenith, having 

 existed long enough to pass into redundant forms, but not long 

 enough to have been exposed to vicissitudes and decline. Their 

 absence from Howe's Island and New Zealand shows they in all 

 likelihood did not belong to the supposed submerged eastern con- 

 tinent, nor are they old enough to be found along with the Laurel 

 and other remains of the gold drift. 



