I'cb.. ] Chapmax. ('teolo<'ical Historv A iisttalian Plants. 117 



TQ2I J '^ • ' 



of fossil leaves of the Older Tertiary series is that found under 

 the floor of Wilson's bluestone quarry at Berwick, Gippsland. 

 These leaf-bearing beds are described by A. E. Kitson as 

 " yellow, white, black, and brown soft clays and sandy clays, 

 some of them containing leaves of dicotyledonous plants in 

 great abundance."* Mr. Henry Deane has described the 

 Geological Survey collection of leaves from this locahty,t and 

 remarks that " a large number of the leaves from these deposits 

 have all the appearance of eucah'pts, and that they belong to 

 the genus Eucalyptus as we know it, and not merely to some 

 ancestral form, is highly probable." Many of these leaves 

 belong to the Proleacecr, and altogether the assemblage, as 

 Mr. Deane says, is "as typically Austrahan as that of any 

 district at the present da}'." The following genera from this 

 locality have been determined by Mr. Deane : — 



Family Tiliace.^. — Genus Aristotelia. 



Sterculiace.e. — Genus Commerconia. 

 SapindacE/E. — Genus Nephelites. 

 Myrtace,^.- — Genera Trislaniies, Eucalvpltis. 

 Apocyxace.-e. — Genus Apocynophyllum. 

 Monimiace.e. — Genera Atherosperma, Molliiiedia, 

 Hedycarya, and Daphnandra. 

 ,, Proteace.e;. — Genus Lomatia. 

 CupuLiFER.E. — Genus Fagiis. 



Mr. Deani' and I recently visited this quarry, on which 

 occasion we found a good series of specimens, amongst which 

 were the genera Lomatia, Nephelites, Eucalyptus, and Tristanitcs, 

 and also a fragment of a fern. The exposure is rather difficult 

 of access, but the results of a little work are always good, as 

 the fossils are very abundant. By the almost equal proportion 

 of Eucalyptus leaves (*f the wide-angled, parallel-veined 

 (archaic) type and those in which thc' veins are acutely dis- 

 posed to the midrib, (;ne cannot help concluding that the flora 

 is somewhere in the mid-stage clevelopmcMit, and precludes 

 the idea of one so old even as the Eocene. 



Flora of the High Plains. -Thv river silts and ferruginous 

 deposits of the Dargo High Plains, already mentioned, have 

 been elevated to between 4,000 and 5,000 feet above sea-level. 

 Underneath the Older Basalt flows at Bogong are found these 

 old flu\iatile beds whose waters formerly ran south, but where 

 now tin- drainage is directed to the Murray. Thev apparently 

 belonged to the oldest, part of the Deep Leads system. The 

 included le;if-remains are referred by McCoy J to I.astnca 



* Kcc. Geol. Surv. Vict., vol. i.. part 1, 1902, p. 55. 



t Tom. cit., pp. 2\-T,2, pis. iii.-vii. 



:f Prog. Rep. No. ;. Geol. Surv. Vict.. 187X. p. 175. 



