TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 447 
out by several States, and maps after the scheme proposed were prepared by 
Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, the United States of America, Argentina, 
Chile, Japan, and in Portugal and Hungary. Much work has been done for the 
map also in Sweden. At the International Geographical Congress of Rome, 1913, 
it was seen that these maps showed many differences in their methods and execu- 
tion, and the Congress recommended a second international conference of dele- 
gates of States. This conference was held in Paris in December 1913; the 
number of States represented at it—34—showed how general the interest in the 
map had become. The resolutions adopted did not alter the general scheme of 
the map, but settled many of its minor features. 
In Australia the scheme was discussed in 1912 by a conference between the 
surveyors-general of the different States, and its execution was recommended 
to the Commonwealth. A map on a uniform but not too small a scale would 
indeed be of the greatest value to Australia, for there is none at present. The 
different States have hitherto only maps of their own territory, and these maps 
are unequal as to scale and contents. One feature is common to all—they do not 
lay stress upon the representation of morphological features, and our knowledge 
of the extent and height of the physical regions of Australia is limited. In order 
to extend the international map of the world to Australia extensive surveys are 
still necessary. It would be an important result of the scheme for a uniform 
map of the world if it should excite interest in the hypsometrical surveys of 
Australia. 
SYDNEY. 
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. The Development of the Natural. Order Lequminose—A Study in 
Paleogeography. By E. C. Annrews, B.A., F.G.S., Geological 
Surveyor, New South Wales. 
A study of Leguminos indicates that the final separation of Australia from 
Tropical Asia took place before that of Tropical America from Tropical Africa. 
This problem admits of comprehension only by a knowledge of the succession 
of geographies in post-Jurassic time, the character and home of the primitive 
types of the Order, the soils and climate which various legumes favour, the 
principles of plant dispersion by sea and land, as well as the arrest of develop- 
ment in certain types, and the wonderful vitality in others, such as Acacia and 
Astragalus; these principles are all elaborated in the main discussion. 
Geography.—Extensive and low-lying plains of erosion, large epicontinental 
seas, and genial climate, were features of the Cretaceous geography, while large 
continents, great deserts, small epicontinental seas, high mountains, glaciated 
poles, and a general differentiation of climate into zones are characteristic of 
modern geography. 
Primitive Types.—Home, the fertile tropics. Trees or shrubs, of luxuriant 
habit. Leaves simple, sometimes digitate or simply pinnate. Corolla regular, 
petals five. Stamens definite, five or ten, free, sometimes indefinite. Style 
simple, peculiar. Fruit a pod or drupe. 
The narrow belt of tropical land extending south of the Equator from 
Tropical America to Australia, by way of Tropical Africa, Madagascar, and 
Malaysia, was broken up at its eastern end in Upper Cretaceous time, and, 
still later, it was broken in its central and western portions. Many remark- 
able groups of genera were developed from the fertile tropical types as the 
result of the severe climatic conditions and poor soils of Australia, South 
Africa, and Eurasia. Most remarkable of these are, in the first place, the 
Podalyrie of Australia and South Africa, which were derived from the tropical 
Sophorex; secondly, the Genistew of Australia, South Africa, and Eurasia ; 
thirdly, the Galegee of Eurasia; and fourthly, the Acacias of Australia, Africa, 
and America. 
Comparisons of these xerophytic forms indicate that, region for region, they 
are only indirectly related to each other by intermediate forms to be found in 
