172 I101!\ EXriODITION — SUMMAKV. 



si';i Of scrip's (if tVcsh vv;i,l(_u' l;ikes. Tliu cxi-slcnci.^ ui lliesc rendered po.-^.silile, 

 lli(iUL;li iKit known to Stiirl, the lai'ge series of ntiw extinct niarsuiiials sueii as 

 I )i[)iotodon, and it also made possible a, eoiini'etion between the western and the 

 eastern parts of the continent. 



F(.)r a fuller a,ccount of the various woi'kers who have dealt with this siihjeet 

 the readei' is inferred to the al)o\e-inentioneil address of Professor Tatt', whose own 

 work is undoulit(ully the most xaluahle which has l)e(ui published during the past 

 few years in connection witli the past history of Central Australia. For many 

 years also Professor Tate* has be(m engaged in collecting and collating information 

 with regard esp(^cia,lly to botanical featuri-, and the result of these he emlx)die(l in 

 his presidential address to the JSiologieal .Section of the Australasian jVssociatiou 

 in Sydney in 1888 entitletl "On the Tnlluence of Physiographic Changes in the 

 Distribution of Life in Australia." In that address, after reviewing the geological 

 changes which are now known to have taiken place in Central Australia and their 

 intluence on the distribution especially of plants within the limits of the continent, 

 Professor Tate, nuiinly on botanical grounds, proposed the division of the Endemic 

 Australian flora into three types and of the continent into three corresponding 

 regions : — 



1. Ri(i-iinotian^ occupying the coastal area w\ the north, east and south-east, 

 its internal boundary coinci<liiig with the rainfall linnt of 1*5-50 inches per annum. 



2. .-lii/dtii/ko/iiaii, a. small region restricted to the south-west corner of the 

 continent, its internal boundary also coinciding with the same rainfall limit in 

 this part. 



3. Rreiiiiaii^ occu]iying a lai-ge stretch of country, centei'ing in Lake l^>yre but, 

 extending right a-cross the contintmt to the shores of W(^st(^rn Australia., and oviu' 

 which the average rainfall is less than ten inches per annum. 



In regard to the Euronotian region Professor Tate says tha,t the type flora 

 of this is "dominant in the south and (%ast ])art of the continent." 



Mr. Hedley, at the Australasian Association meeting held in Adelaide in 

 1893,t in his paper entitled "The Faunal Regions of Australia," pointed out that 

 the i-egions suggested as suitabU^ in the case (if plants were n(_)t e(iually satisfact(jry 

 when a,pplie(l to a.nima,ls. Accepting the Autochthonian and Ei'cmian regions he 

 suggested the divi.sion of the Euronotian into two, for one of which, including 



» Aust. Ass. .\ilv. Sci., \()1. i., Sydney, 18S.S, p. 31-2. 

 t Aust. Ass. Adv. Sci., Aduluidc, lS!)a, \ol. v., ji. 444. 



