(2.) As the Tertiary Flora of Europe includes, amongst others, forms 
of plants also peculiar to Australia, the question arises : In 
wliat relation do these forms stand to those of the Tertiary 
Strata of Australia ? 
(3.) As the present flora of Australia contains, besides its peculiar 
forms of plants, others (originally indigenous) which are nearly 
allied to forms in other parts of the world, it becomes a question 
whether such not-exclusively Australian forms can he also 
traced in the Tertiary Flora of Australia. 
Up to the present time, there are only a few Australian Tertiary 
Plants known which can he referred to the Pliocene Epoch. Most of these 
have been described by Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, Government Botanist, 
Melbourne, in his meritorious treatise published in the “ Reports of the 
Mining Surveyors and Registrars of Victoria” for 1871*, 1872-78, and in 
the “Annual Report of the Department of Mines of New South Wales”! 
for 1876 and 1878. Other species were published by Professor McCoy, in 
Smyth’s “ Report of Progress Geological Survey of Victoria,” 1874, and in 
the “ Prodromus of the Palaeontology of Victoria,” Decade IV, 1876. 
But, valuable as these treatises by F. von Mueller are as contributions 
to our knowledge of the Tertiary Flora of Australia, the material offered by 
them was still too meagre to enable us to arrive at any general conclusions as 
to the real nature of this flora. Nor can his researches as to the systematic 
position of several genera, established by him, be regarded as in any way 
finally determined, and many of them will, no doubt, hereafter have to he 
referred to genera still extant. 
* F’cap, Melbourne (Government Printer). 
t [These Memoirs contain descriptions of New South Wales fossils, and are entitled — “Descriptive Notes on 
the Tertiary Flora of New South Wales.” In the first (1S7C, p. 178), Seeds are described from the Deep Leads of 
Upper Pliocene age, at Gulgong. The following are a list of the species : — 
Ochthodocaryon Wilkinsoni F. von M. 
Eisothecaryon semiseptatum ,, 
Illi cites astrocarpa ,, 
Pentacoila gulgonensis ,, 
Pleiacron elachocarpum ,, 
Acrocoila anodonta ,, 
Phymatocaryon bivalve ,, 
Plesiocapparis leptocelyphis , , 
Spondylostrobus Smythii, var cryptaxis ,, 
The whole were obtained from the auriferous gravel of the Black Lead, beneath basalt, at a depth of 160 
feet, accompanied by leaves and trunks of trees. 
The second Memoir (1878, p. 109, pis. 3 and 4) contains descriptions of most of the above species with 
figures, and also an additional fruit named Wilkinsonia bilaminata, also from the Black Lead of Gulgong. — 
ILE., jnr.] 
