172 E. C. Andrews — The Geological History of the 



(8) The catkin-bearing plants 



(d) The North Hemisphere Problem 

 (1) The Umbelliflorw 



(e) The New Zealand Problem 



(fj The West and East Australia Problem 

 VI. Summary 



Introduction. 



The earlier botanists explained the Australian plants as a 

 special creation. It is safe to say that were the flowering plants 

 of Europe and Australia to be fossilized, and were it possible 

 for a botanist unacquainted with the Australian plant types 

 to see the two groups for the first time, he would conclude that 

 they did not belong to the same geological period. 



It is fitting, in a report such as the present, to direct atten- 

 tion to the conclusion of Bentham as to the probable origin 

 of the indigenous flora of Australia. It had been the intention 

 of the great systematist to discuss the subject in detail, but 

 advanced age and declining health followed on the accumula- 

 tion of the botanical data necessary for such discussion and he 

 simply wrote the accompanying note in the concluding preface 

 to the Flora Australiensis (vol. VII, 18T8) : "The predomi- 

 nant portion appears to be strictly indigenous. Notwithstand- 

 ing an evident though very remote ordinal, tribual, or generic 

 connection with Africa, the great mass of purely Australian 

 species, or endemic genera, must have originated or been 

 differentiated in Australia, and never have spread far out of it." 



It is fitting also at this stage, to acknowledge the great 

 help received from Mr. R. H. Cambage during the past twelve 

 years in the accumulation of data necessary to write the present 

 paper. Indeed it is difficult to indicate just where his influ- 

 ence and his help ceased in the preparation of the report. The 

 original intention had been to prepare a joint report either 

 on the genus Eucalyptus or on the flowering plants in general 

 of Australia. Increased professional duties, however, have 

 prevented Mr. Cambage from cooperating in the preparation 

 of such a work, hence the present brief statement by myself. 



Special thanks are due also to Mr. J. H. Maiden, Director 

 of the National Herbarium, and to Messrs. E. Cheel and A. A. 

 Hamilton, of the Herbarium. 



As the study of the angiosperms in Australia is considered 

 more and more in detail, it becomes evident how unsafe it 

 would be to accept the evidence of any one family, or order, 

 alone, as regards the possibility of former land connection 

 with Australia. As examples may be quoted the papers on 



