144 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



is at present the case. Although the connexion 

 of Tasmania with the mainland was thus recent, 

 probably in late Tertiary time, the island is 

 f aunistically not a mere apanage of the mainland, 

 as England, for instance, is of the continent, 

 differing only from the mainland in the comparative 

 poverty of its life. It is true that the birds and 

 mammals are mostly represented by identical or 

 closely related species in southern Australia, and 

 this is no doubt due to the recent land connexion 

 which has enabled them to range to and fro. We 

 are therefore led to suppose that certain marked 

 differences which exist between Tasmania and the 

 mainland are not caused by the recent separation, 

 but existed prior to this, and were conditioned long 

 ago by other factors. It may be suggested that 

 the essential condition which has left its stamp on 

 Tasmania in certain respects is its direct connexion 

 to the south with the submerged Antarctic con- 

 tinent, which supplied it with certain forms that 

 have never spread very widely on to the mainland. 

 Most prominent among the plants which belong 

 to this category are the eight very distinct species 

 of Richea or Grass-trees, of which only one (R. 

 Gunnii) occurs on the Australian Alps, and the 

 various Conifers which are poorly represented on 

 the mainland. Although the Common Myrtle or 

 European Beech (F. Cunninghami) occurs in 

 Victoria, the west coast mountains of Tasmania 

 support a really peculiar vegetation with elements 

 such as the Horizontal Scrub (Anodopetalum big- 



