654 
president's address. 
Myrica, Quercus, Fagus, Cinnamomum, Banksia and Eucalyptus 
are found to be well represented. 
I have not seen these, but I have carefully looked into the 
matter of the Dalton and Vegetable Creek fossils, and I cannot 
agree with the crucial determinations of Professor Ettingshausen, 
and I believe that his conclusions as to the character of the flora 
and its resemblance to the flora of other parts of the world are 
utterly wrong. 
With the aid of Mr. R. Baker, F.L.S., of the Technological 
Museum, I have made comparisons between the fossil leaves and 
living ones, and so far as I have gone I find that the various types 
of fossil leaves are represented among existing plants and that 
there is no reason to go outside Australia to look for them. But 
even supposing the existence of the northern genera in Australian 
strata could be undoubtedly shown, Ettinghausen's deductions are 
still not valid, for Alnus, Acer, Quercus, Myrica, and others have 
to-day a wide range which brings them almost into close proximity 
to the Australian region, while species of Quercus have been 
actually proved to exist to-day in New Guinea, which is in the 
Australian region. 
This portion of my Address has taken up so much time that I 
cannot on the present occasion do more than refer to one or two 
instances of what I consider faulty identifications, but I hope that 
during the ensuing year I may be able to present to the Society 
some further notes on the subject. 
Fig. 1, Plate in., in Ettingshausen's work is named Cinna- 
momum Lnichhardti, but the leaf represented is much more like 
that of Smilax australis or a species of Rhipogonum. It is 
not safe to conclude that all leaves with the Cinnamomum 
venation belong to that genus. Litsaea dealbata, which grows as 
far south as latitude 34°, and on Mt. Wilson at an elevation of 
3,600 feet, and is not indicative therefore of tropical conditions, 
has the same venation. Baron Ettingshausen's specimens of A cer 
are much more likely to belong to Sterculia. The Alnus fruit it 
has been shown is probably a fragment of an Araucaria branchlet. 
