172 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 
The general question of homotaxis was dealt with at our 
last meeting by the late Professor- Tate in his President’s 
address; and the trend of modern thought is in the direction 
in which his conclusions led him. Geological periods are 
so vast that dispersal, at any rate in the case of marine 
torms, has time to act, and keep the broad facies uniform 
throughout the world (see Marr, 98, p. 49), and marine 
genera characteristic of one period im the Northern Hemi- 
sphere, if occurring in the Southern, may be, as a rule, taken 
as characteristic of the same period. 
Dr. R. L. Jack (fack and Etheridge, 92, p. 2) says— 
“Tn dealing with the animal remains . . . . we trace 
a parallelism between the formations of Australia and 
Europe ... . . the order of succession of the Queens- 
land formations bears a general and striking resemblance to 
that of the European.” - 
Mr. R. Etheridge, jun. (Etheridge, 91, p. 134), in speak- 
ing of the strong presumptive evidence for considering Lepi- 
dodendron australe to-be of Carboniferous age, is careful co 
use the words “supposing, that is, we are to adopt. or to 
endeavour to adopt, a European classification for our Upper 
Paleozoic rocks.’ Elsewhere (Ftheridge, "91, p. 4) he 
says— At the same time, great caution must be exercised 
in assimilating our geological subdivisions strictly with those 
of the Old World.” 
There is. however, no need to multiply quotations on 
this bead. As far as our present knowledge goes, the 
general aspect of the faunas of the formations, to which 
we in Australia are accustomed to attach such names as 
Silurian or Cretaceous, is that of their European prototypes. 
When, however, we come to deal with fossil plants 
wa are ac once confronted with the difficulties pre 
sented by the Glossopteris flora; though Glossopteris itseli - 
appears to be unknown in Europe,* yet many of its 
- Australian associates are found there, and occur in Mesozoic 
strata. In Australia this flora is Paleozoic, and is asso- 
ciated with a marine fauna which has parcly a Carboniferous 
aspect and partly a Permian one. (Jack and Etheridge. 
92. p, 70.) The refusal of some of ovr Australian geo 
logists to bow to the plain stratigraphical facts, and the 
influence that this refusal had on geologists elsewhere. had 
a disastrous retarding effect on the progress of geology in 
Australia. It is ail ancient history now, ‘and the truth has 
in the end prevailed, as it ever will. 
mr er ee ee ee 
*1Tt has recently been recorded from Russia. 
y 
