108 



FOSSIL PLANTS ATTRIBUTED TO EUCALYPTUS. 



K.nklh hkk. 1S40. Endlicher (Genera PlarUarum, 1836-1840) was a pioneer in 

 recording fossil plants in their proper systematic position in comparison with existing 

 plants. Thus be records fossils in Marsiliaceis affinis (Sphenophyttum), Isoetacese, 

 Lycopodiacese, Lepidodendrse, Cycadaceae, and perhaps others. He does not take 

 cognisance of Eucalyptus; indeed, 1 do not think a fossil Eucalypt had been described 

 up to 1840. 



Hooker, 1853. — Hooker (in Hookers Jowrn. Bot., vol. v, p. 415, 1853) made 

 an early protest in regard to deductions from inadequate data, although he did not, at 

 this date, make any reference to Eucalyptus in this connection. 



We regret also to observe a tendency on the part of the author of the pamphlet before us 

 ('■ Pflanzenverbreitung und Pflanzenwanderung," by Dr. Herman Hoffmann, Darmstadt, 1853) to place a 

 degree of reliance on the identification of fossil species of plants with those now existing, which we do not 

 by any means think the materials usually at the disposal of fossil botanists can warrant. Everyone who 

 is accustomed to the handling of large masses of plants must have felt the great difficulty of referring 

 miens without Rowers or fruit to the Natural Orders. How much more difficult, then, must it be to 

 identify fossil specimens, chiefly single leaves, with living species ! a thing now often done, with the utmost 

 confidence, on exceedingly slender grounds. We should not like to be obliged to distinguish fragments of 

 dried specimens of Pinus Pv/mih from Finn* si/lrcslris. or from a great many other Pines; and yet our 

 author tells us, on the authority of Goppert, that the former of these so-called species is found in Miocene 

 strata in Germany. Such hasty references are, in our opinion, particularly dangerous, and likely to lead 

 to a great deal of mischief. 



A few years later he remarked : — 



Wcsel and Weber d. -■ ■ - ri ! »' - from the brown coal of the Rhine a rich and varied Mora, representing 

 numerous families never now seen associated, and including some of the peculiar and characteristic genera 

 of thi Australian, south African. American, Indian and European Floras." (Hooker, "Introd. Essay," 

 /•''. Tas., p. xxi., L861.) 



In a footnote I looker says — 



" Sei Quart. Jowrn Geol. Soc. .VI'. -Misc. 3, when' an abstract is given, with some excellent cautions, 

 by C. J. F. Bupbury. The Australian genera include Eucalyptus, Qasudrinq, Leptomeria, Ton plf Ionia, 

 Banksia. Dryandra and Hakea. I am not prepared to assert thai these identifications, or the Australian 

 ones of the Mollasse an also so unsal isfactory that the evidence of Australian types in the brown coal and 

 Mollassi should be altogether set aside; but I do consider that not one. of tin; above-named genera is 

 identified at all satisfactorily, and thai many of them are not even problematically decided." 



(Jnger, 1861. Prof. Franz CJnger, of the University of Vienna, delivered in 

 1 sci ,; lecture (" Neu Holland in Europa," Braunmuller), which, under the title "New 

 Holland in Europe " was translated and published in Jowrn. Bot. iii, 39 (1805). It is 

 well illustrated (though nol with Eucalyptus), is charmingly written, and gives an 

 interesting accounl of the views then held in regard to the relations of the European 

 and Australian Horns in the Eocene period. 



Following are some extracts from the paper : — 



. . . I proceed to prove thai New Holland exerciseda decisive influence on the formation 

 of our much favoured continent (Europe) and, paradoxical as it, may sound, contributed to make it what 



it i- . . . Wle n \e Holland tood in the coi ction I allude to with Europe . . . and the soil 



n. hi <\ew Holland) wai youthful and vigorous, full of precious 

 genu lobe " (p. 40). 



