The Nardoo Plant. 137 



sea-shore ; the other, seeing in the same beds evidence of a 

 recent and sudden upheaval of the land. Truth, probably, 

 lies between these two extremes. The refuse of native feasts 

 may certainly have been the origin of some few isolated 

 patches, but many of the beds are by far too extensive not 

 to have been formed in a natural manner during a sub- 

 mergence of the land. There is, however, so far as these 

 observations extended, no evidence to show that any part of 

 the island has risen with a sudden motion. Any upheaval 

 which has taken place was most probably of a gradual kind, 

 somewhat akin to that which is now supposed to be imper- 

 ceptibly elevating the entire coast line of the Australian 

 continent. 



At Geilstov Bay, nearly opposite to Hobart Town, are 

 situated some extensive beds of fresh-water limestone or 

 travertine. Many of the shells therein, and some of the 

 plants, are identical with some now living ; but there are 

 others, of which no recent analogues are to be met with in 

 any part of the island. 



Akt. XXXIII. — On the Systematic Position of the Nardoo 

 Plant, and the Physiological Characteristics of its Fruit. 

 By Feed. Mueller, M.D., F.R.S. 



[Read 29th September, 1862.] 



The observations which I beg to offer to the Royal Society 

 of Victoria on this occasion, have only but in a limited mea- 

 sure claims on origin ah ty, inasmuch as they are mainly 

 founded on an essay by Dr. T. Hanstein, read before the 

 Academy of Sciences of Berlin, in the beginning of this 

 year. The essay referred to was transmitted by Sir Redmond 

 Barry, who received it during his stay in Berlin from Pro- 

 fessor Ehrenberg, and who expressed a desire that it should 

 be translated and rep ublished in Victoria. Dr. Han stein reviews 

 in this memoir the various described species of Marsilea, indi- 

 genous to Australia, and enters then at sOme length into a 

 physiological treatise, explaining with great ability the 

 organisation and the development of the Marsilea fruit. Of 

 the physiological part of this essay, as highly important, I 

 thought it desirable to submit a translation, abridged only in 

 a few trifling points. In reference to the systematic part of 

 the essay, I consider it however necessary to state briefly the 



