326 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



coincided with a remarkable development of the higher animals in 

 South Africa. It saw the birth of the mammals and some of the 

 types of reptiles which persist to the present day. In view of these 

 facts it may perhaps be justifiable to conclude that, in the vegetable 

 kingdom also, evolutionary developments took place, that the 

 ancestors of our present Angiosperms appeared, and that some of 

 the types which then appeared have persisted with little modification 

 down to the present day. This is at present only a working hypo- 

 thesis, but it must be remembered that for the Northern Hemisphere 

 (Flahault, 1907, p. 292), by important discoveries in America, in 

 Portugal, in France, and in Central Europe, the appearance of the 

 Angiosperms has been further and further removed, but no clue 

 as to their origin has been found. There is no doubt now that 

 they appeared in Europe and America at the beginning of the Lower 

 Cretaceous, while a large expansion of Dicotyledons characterise 

 the vegetation of the Upper Cretaceous, but no intermediate forms 

 between Angiosperms and Gymnosperms have been found. Is 

 perhaps Wehvitschia an indication that such intermediate forms 

 may be looked for in the Southern Hemisphere and especially in 

 South Africa, though Wehuitschia itself must be looked upon 

 as a final branch of the Gymnosperms? If it is objected that 

 we have no right to postulate the existence of the ancestors of 

 some constituents of the Cape Flora down into Cretaceous 

 and perhaps even earlier times, it should be remembered 

 that even in Europe in Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits we only 

 know well-preserved remains of forest plants (Engler, 1905a, p. 12), 

 chiefly trees and shrubs — we scarcely know any remains from the 

 undergrowth of forests, scarcely any from the tree — and shrubless 

 formations, and yet these must always have existed. The absence 

 of palseontological evidence for our hypothesis is, therefore, not quite 

 so serious as it appears at first sight." 



* Prof. Schwarz told me some time ago that he had seen a pahn-like fossil plant 

 from near Burghersdorp. Knowing that Mr. Alfred Brown, of Aliwal North, had 

 in his collection many fossil plants, which are probably undescribed, I wrote to 

 him whether they might perhaps include some Angiosperms. In his reply he says : 

 " The fossiliferous strata here are nearly at the top of the so-called ' Burghersdorp 

 beds,' and besides ferns, cycads, and other fine plants there appear to be both sedge- 

 like plants and palms, besides some peculiar cellular stems which may afford some 

 evidence of what you require." 



Of course I give this information for what it is worth, but I hope by kind per- 

 mission of Mr. Brown soon to have an opportunity of critically examining these 

 specimens, and thus decide whether they afford evidence for my views or not. 



In the meantime I hazard the guess that the "palm-like" fossils are not 

 Angiosperms but Cordaitale^. 



