'^q2i'] CiiAVMAS. Geological Histoyy Australian Plants. 119 



being chiefly of the Coprosma type (Coprosmcephyllum, Deane). 

 Other genera present are the ])roteaceous Persoonia (Geebiing), 

 the coniferous Phyllocladus, and a fragment of a fern frond. 

 Casuarina and Acacia are also represented. The strati- 

 graphical relationships of this bed are clearly with the Janjukian 

 or Miocene, and somewhat near the base of the series. 



Mr. Deane has described a branch with leaves, from Morning- 

 ton, under the name of Eucalyptus prcscoriacca* Fossil leaves 

 are fairly abundant in several outcrops south' of Mornington, 

 and the following genera, amongst others, have been noticed 

 by Mr. R. A. Keble and myself : — Nephelites, Tristanites, 

 {?) Eucalyptus, Apocynophyllnm, Mollinedia, and Lomatia. This 

 assemblage has a close ai^nity to the Berwick flora, although 

 the sediments in which they are preserved are somewhat 

 different, the latter being more argillaceous or less sandy. 



The Morwell Brown Coal. — In the Alberton and Latrobe 

 Valley areas there are immense thicknesses of this accumula- 

 tion of forest debris, one of the seams exceeding 800 feet in thick- 

 ness. The catchment area for the rafts of timber pouring 

 down from the storm-riven forests of the highlands was con- 

 tinually sinking under the superimposed weight. .A. curious 

 point requiring explanation is the purity of the deposit, and 

 we can only conjecture that the silt and gravel was dropped 

 before reaching the main area of deposition. From an ex- 

 amination of many samples of the wood from the Morwell 

 brown coal, I have elsewhere shown in a report submitted to 

 the Victorian Geological Survey (but not yet pubhshed), that 

 the wood is referable to the Cypress type of structure, and by 

 comparison is almost identical with the Callitris cuprcssiformis, 

 Ventenat, or Mountain Cypress Pine, still abundant in Victoria. 

 The age of this deposit is not absolutely certain, but from 

 comparative palaeogeographical evidence it seems not im- 

 probable that the great subsidences involved in the formation 

 of the deposits were contemporaneous with the crustal oscilla- 

 tions which played so important a part in the building of the 

 Miocene strata of Victoria ; and we may assume that, whilst 

 the higher level river valleys were filled with lava, the extensive 

 erosion taking place near the coast caused a sagging of the coast- 

 hne and consequent accumulation of debris and vegetable matter. 

 (To be continued.) 



Orchids. — The Gum Tree for December contains a chatty 

 article by Miss Edith Coleman, of Blackburn, entitled " Forest 

 Orchids," in which a number of our orchids are briefly described, 

 while the Misses Dorothy and (iladys Coleman ha\-e contributed 

 drawings of many of the species mentioned, unfortunately with- 

 out much regard to proportion. 



♦ Ibid., vol. i., part i, 1902, p. ^u. 



