ERICA TETRALIX IN AMERICA. 59 
property, and no improvement. All was hopeless stagnation. But if, 
under these unfavourable conditions, man has existed in Australia, at 
least as far as we historically know, for several centuries, we may con- 
clude that he could exist in Europe, even during the Eocene period, 
when the same, or a closely similar climate, vegetation, and perhaps 
fauna, prevailed there. We may also be sure that, with such surround- 
ings, whatever his race may have been, he could not have arrived at a 
much higher degree of civilization than the miserable aborigines who 
are now disappearing in Australia. 
Bearing in mind that, at one period of the earth's history, there 
flourished in Europe a vegetation very similar, not to say identical, 
to that still beheld in Australia; but that the whole of it has beeu 
swept away, to make room for other vegetable forms, leaving no trace 
behind except what is recorded in the great stone-book of nature, 
New Holland is highly instructive. It is a faithful picture of what 
the aspect of our flora must have been ages ago; and on paying a 
visit to Australia we are, as it were, transporting ourselves back to ante- 
historical periods. The effect which such an inspection produces on the 
mind is very singular. It kindles in us (and I speak from personal ex- 
perience) feelings of curiosity, but no sympathy. We delight in bright 
green foliage, sweet-smelling flowers, and fruits with some kind of taste 
in them. But we have here none of all these. The leaves are of a 
dull, often brownish, green, and without any lustre, the flowers do not 
smell, and the fruits, without any exception, are tasteless and insipid. 
Is the whole of this vegetation, and the animals depending upon it for 
support, to disappear before the continent becomes a fit abode for the 
white man ?—B. Seemann, in ‘ Popular Science Review,’ 1866, p. 26. 
ERICA TETRALIX IN AMERICA. 
Professor Reichenbach calls attention, in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 
to Er ced Tetraliz, as indicated in his father's * Flora Germanica Excur- 
ria,’ p. 143, suh n. DIS. having — Bi ooo - m Guiana by 
* 
Weigelt. He st : t's specimens. 
Now that we have ker every doubt about Calluna : vulgaris being. 
indigenous to the New World, the question is worth re-examining. 
