THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 167 



of enchanting beauty. But the tropical flora (as Wallace points 

 out) is not truly typical of Australia, being largely made up of 

 immigrants from beyond sea. 



I ought, I think, to mention one characteristic Order, namely, 

 the group of plants belonging to the Epacris family. Their 

 number and surprising variety of types varying from dainty 

 alpine elves to stately palm-like growths of 30 feet the 

 exquisite colouring of their flowers and berries, have made the 

 Epacrids deservedly popular. Two typical forms will be found 

 in Plate III. 



There are hardly any deciduous trees, in our English sense of 

 the word, in the southern continent ; as a rule, all are evergreen. 

 I have personally only made the acquaintance of one a dwarf 

 beech (F. gunnii] which loses all its leaves in winter. This 

 reminds us of a rather puzzling thing. In Tasmania there is a 

 limestone deposit, apparently of Miocene Age, in which the 

 leaves of willow, alder, birch, oak, and beech occur. Why and 

 whence did these strangers come " guests that tarry for a day " 

 and then die out, leaving behind them only our one little 

 deciduous beech ? 



Zoology. Here we find in the flesh a number of interesting 

 survivals, who, secure in their old Ark, escaped the Deluge of 

 change which overcame Purbeck and Portland and prepared 

 the way for Dewlish elephants and other novelties. One old 

 friend we are glad to welcome a veritable " queer fish," the 

 Ceratodus of Queensland, found in the English Lias. He grows 

 to nearly 6 feet long, and, being related to the Amphibrce, is able 

 to crawl out of the water at night and indulge a healthy taste for 

 green stuff. The bushmen tell us he climbs trees, but one 

 can't always digest what bushmen say. An earlier fish still, 

 whose teeth are very familiar to Dorset geologists, has a way 

 over there of making himself unpleasantly familiar to Melbourne 

 swimmers, under the name of " Port Jackson Shark." 



Whilst these ancient fishes were enjoying an existence 

 unspoilt by human interference in Dorset waters, mammalian 

 quadrupeds made their appearance on dry land. Prof. Owen 



