192 TERTIARY ROCKS OF AUSTRALASIA, 



such genera as Lomatia, Dryundroides, Coprosma, Ccra- 

 topetalum, but with a great number of genera occurring 

 in the Tertiary flora of Europe, North America, and 

 North Asia. 



" Th« species are mostly allied to Miocene, and there- 

 fore the leaf-beds of the Tertiary Travertin belong, I 

 believe, to the Miocene formation. 



" The result of my report is as follows : — I find the 

 Tertiary Flora of Australia is far more nearly allied to 

 the Tertiary Floras of other Continents than to the living 

 flora of Australia. It seems, therefore, that the numerous 

 forms which characterise the latter have been developed 

 out of Pliocene or Post-Tertiary forms of plants till now 

 unknown to us. The recent flora of Australia contains 

 also genera which characterise other floras, but not the 

 Australian, It was till now enigmatical how they came 

 to form part of tliis recent flora, as the species are endemic, 

 and have not wandered ; for instance, the species of the 

 European and North American genus Fagus, of the 

 Asiatic genera Taherncemontana and JElcBcarpus, &c. 



" As some of them now have been discovered in the 

 Australian Tertiary, — for instance, the above-named, — 

 there is no doubt they passed over into the living flora 

 from the Tertiary. The proofs of this may be easily intro- 

 duced into palseo-botanical science by means of future 

 discoveries and investigations : for in every case the more 

 species from large and well-preserved series, the more 

 readily shall we be enabled to show the origin of our 

 living floras." 



Basalt and Basaltic Tuffs. — One of the most charac- 

 teristic features marking the close of the Palaeogene period 

 in Tasmania is the prevalence of extensive sheets, dykes, 

 and masses of nepheline and anamesite basalts, associated 

 with basaltic tuffs, already referred to in a former chapter 

 under the heading "Volcanic Activity," p. 152. These 

 basalts, although sometimes found as conical hills and 

 isolated patches, are generally spread out over the Tertiary 

 leaf-beds as sheets or terraces along the valleys or plains, 

 as in the neighbourhood of Bronte, Great Lake, Mount 

 Bischoff, Deloraine, Port Sorell, Campbell Town, Avoca, 

 Cornelian Bay, Beauty Bay, Branxholm. 



The rock varies considerably in composition, colour, 



