296 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 



These two groups of trees are also entirely absent from Tasmania, 

 so that here is a similarity existing between these two floras, and what 

 may be further noted, neither are red-coloured Eucalyptus timbers 

 found in that island, and following up this clue, we find that Victoria 

 has only a very few such amongst her Eucalypts. In fact, it would 

 appear that Peppermint, Stringybark, and Grum or smooth-barked 

 trees predominate in this quarter of the Continent, and next to these 

 in numerical order, the mallees and boxes, whilst red woods are in a 

 minority ; the pale-coloured averaging about 75 per cent, more than the 

 red-coloured timbers. And this is to be expected, as the evidence 

 appears to point to the fact that the species which produce phellan- 

 drene oils are the more recent of the genus, and are almost exclusiA'elT 

 found on the eastern part of the continent. These are again charac- 

 terized almost without exception by their white or pale-coloured 

 timbers, so that if this phylogeuetic theory is correct, it must therefore 

 be naturally expected that red timber should be more pronounced 

 where phellandrene oil yielding species are less prevalent, as in, say, 

 Queensland and Western Australia. 



This important group of red Eucalyptus timbers is only repre- 

 sented in Victoria by about nine species. 



Now both these groups — -Angophoras and Bloodwood trees — are 

 entirely wanting in Tasmania, which island was at one time undoubtedly 

 connected with the mainland, when the two formed one contiguous 

 portion of land in the south-east of a continent, and so had a common 

 Eucalyptus flora. 



From the above remarks, founded on present-day observations,, 

 it is seen that a. marked similarity exists between these two floras to 

 this day, even after so long a period of separation. The absence in 

 the south-east corner of Australia of these two groups of trees, might 

 reasonably be attributed to some physical or geological agency, at least 

 that is what my facts appear to prove. 



If we may look upon the Angophora and Bloodwoods as the oidest 

 of this section of the Australian Myrtaceae, then they should occur 

 on land that has been the longest above sea-level, and that is where 

 they really do occur, and so, regarding Victoria and Tasmania as be- 

 longing to a later period than the Great Divide of the mainland these 

 have not yet found their way to those parts. In the case of the 

 Angophoras, the Genoa River is their most southern limit, a 

 stream on the northern side of the Dividing Range between Victoria 

 and New South Wales, and in this corner occurs Victoria's only 

 Bloodwood. 



If this theory is correct, then red timbers as representing the older 

 trees, should prevail in the northern portion of the tableland of the Great 

 Divide and in Western Australia, and as far as I have been able lo ascer- 

 tain, they do, but it is difficult to get exact data in this latter direction 



