liii. 



became extinct north of the equator sirice the Oolitic age. 

 In a living state they are confined to extra-tropical and sub- 

 tropical South America, Australia, New Zealand, and some of 

 the South Pacific Islands. Of these two familiar forms are 

 known as the "Norfolk Island Pine " and the " Moreton Bay 

 Pine." The Oolite of Europe in the relics of marsupial 

 animals, in the remains of fish analogous to the Port Jackson 

 shark (Gestracion) , and in the still more remarkable occurrence 

 of the molluscan genus Trigonia and of the coniferous 

 Araucarias still existing in Australia, afford a striking corres- 

 pondence with the present fauna and flora of this portion of 

 the globe. From these circumstances it has generally been 

 held that Australia, in which alone this type of the oolite 

 zoology and botany has been preserved, was at that epoch 

 connected with India and Europe by dry land. 



The researches of Mr. J. Starkie Gardiner amongst the 

 plant-bearing strata of Bournemouth, England, have, however, 

 established the fact that a species of Araucaria, indistinguish- 

 able by any discoverable character from A. Gunninghami, which 

 forms vast forests on the shores of Moreton Bay, flourished 

 abundantly in England during the Middle Eocene Period. 

 Here its associates were, amongst others, Dammara, Eucalyptus, 

 and many Proteaeeae, which are strictly forms of the southern 

 hemisphere. The presence during the Eocene Period in what 

 is now cold temperature Europe of a flora now distinctive of 

 the warm temperate and sub-tropical regions of the southern 

 hemisphere, proves that some of the at present purely 

 Australian genera neither originated nor became differentiated 

 in Australia, and whose very specific differentiation was 

 accomplished in part before the Miocenes began. The discovery 

 of Araucarias in a fossilised state in England and Tasmania, 

 and belonging to an early period of their Tertiary age, is one 

 of great interest, as establishing an important link in the 

 series of changes which separate Oolitic times from the recent 

 epoch. 



"EragmentaPhytographise," vol. xi. By Baron E.von Mueller. 



Easiculus xci., Eeb., 1880, contains diagnoses of the com- 

 posites Leptorrliynclius elongatus, De Candolle, and L. medius, 

 A. Cunningham. The latter is reduced to the rank of a variety 

 of the former by Bentham in the Flora Australiensis. The 

 leading differential characters are for : — 



L. elongatus, corolla white or ochreous- white ; achenes elon- 

 gated, glandular- scabrous, attenuated towards the apex. 



L. medius, corolla yellow, achenes short turgid, nearly 

 smooth, with a much elongated slender beak. 



