76 THE ORIGIN OF AUSTRALIA 
IX. SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF THE 
FLORA. 
72. The solutions of the problems of our Flora and 
Fauna have, I trust, more than hinted themselves : but it is 
necessary to put the answers in definite language. The 
first question is, how comes it that the Australian Tertiary 
flora is so different from the present one 2 
73. The reply to this should now be quite plain. At 
the close of the Cretaceous period, and far on into the 
Tertiary, the entire world-flora was less differentiated than 
at present, and Australia presented no peculiarity in this 
respect. That there was no great distinction between the 
floras of the east and west, is proved by the character of 
the fossil plants found in W. Australia, Victoria, N. S. 
Wales, Tasmania and Queensland. 
74. Nor is this uniformity pecular to the Tertiary 
flora. It becomes more evident, as our knowledge increases, 
that only in recent times—say from the Pliocene—has 
there been that great difference between the animals and 
plants which distinguishes one part of the world from another. 
In simple parlance, there was less of “the foreign” than 
now—the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic traveller would not 
have had the zest of fresh fields and pastures new (quotation 
dubious) for to him the molluses and fishes, the crustacea and 
the reptiles, of the antipodes would have looked hke home 
products. This great feature of general uniformity has not 
been sufficiently appreciated, and thanks are due to Mr. 
R. M. Johnston, of Tasmania, for insisting on its recognition. 
We are so accustomed to the idea that other places have 
other ways that we read the proverb autres temps autres 
moeurs back into geology, where it doesn’t belong. There 
is something almost uncanny in crossing Europe and Asia 
amid the changing life, and dropping again upon most of 
the old English birds and butterflies in Japan, half round 
the globe: but it would not have excited a comment had 
we travelled with a Cretaceous Cook. So there is really 
nothing to explain as to why the Tertiary flora is so different 
from the present one. 
75. The converse, why is the Australian present flora 
so much more different from the Tertiary than the floras of 
other places, is the true problem to solve. The answer is 
