40 AUSTRAtifAN VEGETATION AND IT.S GEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT 



I. Frir I'ossll Hfiencs of /iltnits hare now living reprettentativeSy 

 hut /in ft' in pitrt heeti succeeded hij others more or less closely allied. 



From this it is seen that in certain groups of plants 

 there has b»en reguhir and constant change, by adaptation to 

 environment ; and there has been a complete extinction of other 

 species which could not readily conform themselves to the 

 chanfifed conditions. 



II. Thr deejivr the stratutn cnntaiuiurf the pltnit reninins, the 

 lower these plants are in tijpe, tnid the ijreater the difference hetween 

 them iind species now Uciwj in the same reijion. 



This simply shows that the greater the time given for 

 change, the further from the original type have the plants 

 metamorpho.<ed themselves ; and, as in animal life, it tends to 

 show that the higher plants are produced by gradual develop- 

 ment from those of simpler structure. 



III. The fossil species ore often of' o kind irhoUij unsuitahlt 

 for the present climate of the region in irhich they lie. 



In a recent magazine there is an account of an imaginary 

 visit to one of Jupiter's satellites, which was found in a con- 

 dition approaching that of our moon. The few inhabitants 

 were found grouped about the equator of their world, living under 

 glass, like exotics in an English hot-house. Similarly our 

 world is losiiig its internal heat, and it is conceivable that 

 places now covered with ice and snow, once carried a prolific 

 vegetation. This may account for the discovery in Greenland 

 of remains of plants which are said to have required a climate 

 like that of the Mediterranean coast. De Heer calculates that 

 to grow such plants, the average daily temperature must have 

 been 80 degs. higher than that of (ireensland at the present day. 

 Simihir plant remains were found in Franz Josef Land by the 

 Jackson-Harmsworth expedition, and are mentioned by Nansen 

 in his " Furthest North." 



For a knowledge of the fossil plants of Queensland we are 

 indebted to Messrs. W. Carruthers. J. W. Dawson. R. Etheridge, 

 junr., the Revs, W. B. Clarke and J. E. Tenison Woods, Pro- 

 fessor McCoy, and the (lerman specialists Ottokar Feistmantel 

 and C. von Ettingshausen. Feistmantel dealt mainly with the 

 plants of the coal measures, and Ettingshausen with cretaceous 

 plants. Mr. R. Etheridge, junr., determined all fossil plants 

 collected by the Queensland Geological Survey Department up 

 to the tnd of 1895. 



