34 
there are inserted either teeth of almost equal size, or else there are between 
the principal teeth and their secondary veins smaller teeth, making the double 
dentation appear more distinctly. Fagus Moorei has particularly the same 
leathery texture and generally simply dentate leaf as F. JFilkinsoni , and 
is nearly related to it even as regards the size, form, and venation of the leaf. 
F. Moorei differs chiefly from F. JFilkinsoni only in its more numerous, 
more obtuse-angled, and more prominent secondary veins. The supposition 
that there is a genetic connection between the two species cannot, therefore, 
be wrong. We need only assume that between the F. JFilkinsoni, which we 
recognise as Eocene, and the still existing species there is at least one inter- 
mediate link, and the chain is complete. Even if this link had not been 
discovered, we might conclude from the close relationship between F. 
Moorei and F. ferruginea, that it must have been a descendcnt from the 
ancestral species of the latter. Fortunately, however, the intermediate link 
referred to has been discovered among the plant remains of the more recent 
Tertiary Strata of Tasmania, as will be shown in the sequel. 
Fagus Cunninghami, Hook. 111., has also thick, leathery, but smaller 
elliptical, or more often ovate, not seldom obtusely triangular leaves. The 
mostly broader obtuse base is shortly petiolate ; the margin is usually simply 
dentate ; the teeth arc obtusely rounded, and directed forwards. On the 
dorsum of the tooth there is often a shallow notch, which may be regarded 
as an indication of double dentation. This supposition is borne out by the 
fact that the notch is nearer to the base than to the apex of the tooth, and 
especially by the not infrequent occurrence of two unequal notches as the 
result of a somewhat deeper cutting into the tooth. The secondary vein 
terminates in the greater or principal tooth. From a specimen with rather 
larger leaves in the Royal Herbarium at Kew, collected by Mr. R. Gunn, I have 
obtained the following particulars relative to the venation. A fine, somewhat 
flexuose midrib extends to the apex of the leaf. The secondary veins are 
very fine, 3-5 on each side, issuing at angles of 40° to 50°, and branching 
towards the margin. The marginal teeth, therefore, are reached only by 
branches of the secondary veins. Tertiary veins are few, and dictyodromic, 
forming a loose net. 
Although this species in its smaller leaves, and especially in the small 
number of secondary and tertiary veins, differs more from the Fagus JFilkin- 
soni Ilian the former, it is nevertheless allied to it on account of the similar 
