206 



fossils, when direct certainty or far-reacliing circumstantial 

 evidence existed, as, for instance, in the case of Araucaria 

 Johnstoni, alluded to by Baron Von Ettingshausen, which 

 Conifer, though its cone is as yet known only in a young 

 state, was placed in that genus, not because the caipologic 

 characteristics were conclusive, but because the genus 

 Araucaria has been traced elsewhere from living forms succes- 

 sively through several geologic epochs. There may, however, 

 exist in many localities a consociation of vegetable fossils to 

 such an extent, and of such a similarity, as to justify from the 

 mere presence of some peculiar foliage, not absolutely 

 characteristic by itself for any particular genus, our systema- 

 tising on mere leaf forms, especially if such an intimate and 

 extensive anatomic knowledge, as Baron Von Ettingshausen 

 displays, is brought to bear on such fossils ; nevertheless, the 

 almost infinite forms, some of which not rarely reiterative in 

 various genera and even different orders of plants, assumed by 

 leaves throughout the whole wide creation, would render 

 identification, unaided by floral and fructifying organs, often 

 hazardous in the extreme, even to the most experienced 

 scrutator. 



Incidentally it should perhaps here be mentioned, that we 

 owe the earliest records of tertiary Tasmanian plants to Sir 

 Paul de Strzelecki, who in his valuable volume " Physical 

 description of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land," 

 254 (184-5), offered a note by Professor J. Morris on two leaf 

 impressions and a branchlet fossil in the travertine near 

 Hobart, all three delineated on plate vii. of his work, and he 

 adds that the celebrated Charles Darwin, whose death we had 

 lately to deplore did notice already the occurrence of leaves of 

 a supposed Palm in the same dejDOsit. 



The essay presented to us by the celebrated Austrian 

 palaeontologist, is, independent of its special local interest, 

 also of general importance, inasmuch as he enunciates his 

 opinion that the whole existing vegetation of the world can in 

 its development be traced to an universal original flora of 

 bygone geologic ages, a conclusion from palaeontologic data 

 first drawn distinctly by Baron Von Ettingshausen, although 

 foreshadowed by other observers and indicated already by 

 D'Archiac in the wording quoted by Schimper, " Le present 

 de la terre n'est que la consequence de son passe." This 

 enunciation, it need hardly be said, supports the theory of 

 organic beings having gradually ascended in the scale of 

 development. 



One of the most interesting forms of pliocene plants, 

 rendered known by this new essay, is the Alder, with which 

 Baron Von Ettingshausen has generously connected the name 

 of the writer of these lines, no species of Alnus occurring in the 



