PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 
655 
and the leaves attributed to BefAila might equally well belong to 
say Pomadervis betulina. 
There are many other examples which I have not time to give 
in detail now, but I have little doubt that all or nearly all the 
fossil leaves can be shown to possess the form and character of 
existing ones in the brush forests at the same latitude on the 
coast, and there is no necessity to search the world over for 
resemblances. 
As to the statement that the Australian types are not propor- 
tionately represented, it is only a pity that Baron Ettingshausen 
is not better acquainted with the Australian flora of the east 
coast. He would find that in the dense brush forests of the coast 
Eucalypts and Proteacece become choked out and their place is 
taken by other types from the north. It is only necessary to 
suppose that the vegetation of the coast extended inland as far as 
Gunning or Vegetable Creek, a circumstance very likely to happen 
in the moister Miocene times, and one might have leaves pre- 
served not of the open forest or scrub where the Australian types 
abound, but that of the brushes where the same are rare. 
It is clear from the above considerations that the existence of 
the universal flora of mixed types assumed by Heer and Ettings- 
hausen is not proved and that the extraordinary sorting opera- 
tion which the "floral climate" was supposed to effect is 
grossly exaggerated. The absurdity of the supposition with 
regard to Australia seems to me extreme when it is remem- 
bered how many climates (not one alone) varying between hot 
and cold, moist and dry, Australia possesses. Eucalypts and 
other trees grow from east to west and from north to south of the 
country under the most variable conditions, and they will grow 
in other countries in the greatest luxuriance. 
Further investigation of this subject should be persisted in, 
and the Tertiary and earlier beds of Western Australia may be 
looked to to throw light on the subject. 
At present the facts seem to afford grounds for concluding — 
(1) That many, if not all, the typical Australian floral types 
originated in Australia or in some land connected with it, but 
now submerged. 
