3.—PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE FOSSIL FLORA OF PIT- 
FIELD, MORNINGTON, SENTINEL ROCK (OTWAY COAST), 
BERWICK, AND WONWRON. 
(.By Henry Deane , M.A., F.L.S .) 
Specimens from No. 8 Bore, Glenfine Extended Company, Pitfield,* * * § Nos. 
1 to 17 inclusive. The leaves indicate a vegetation of the “ brush type ; 
among them forms resembling Sterculia , Myoporum , Mollinedia , Pittos- 
porum , and Cinnamomum are found. 
Specimens from Mornington,f Nos. 18 to 33 inclusive. These remains are 
not well preserved, and are very difficult to make out. The living genera 
P odocarpus and Dammar a seem, among others, to be represented. No. 30 
is an interesting specimen requiring closer examination, hut having all the 
appearance of a twig-hearing phyllodium of some species of Acacia; it may, 
however, belong to one of the parallel-veined Eucalypti or Hakece. I 
hope that further examination may lead to a decision on this point. 
Specimens from Sentinel Rock,} Otwav Coast, Nos. 34 to 76 inclusive, and 
Nos. 160 to 182 inclusive. These leaf remains promise very much of interest; 
there are many of them very well preserved, the small reticulated veins 
being perfectly distinct. At the present moment, however, I hesitate to 
express an opinion upon their affinities. 
Specimens from Berwick,§ Nos. 77 to 141 inclusive, and Nos. 471 to 526 
inclusive. At a first glance it would appear that nearly all traces of the 
original leaf structure had disappeared ; a close inspection, however, shows 
that, in most cases, this is not so ; hut that while the carbonaceous matter 
has been either dissolved away, consumed by slow oxidation, or bleached, 
colorless but perfect impressions of the vein system remain. The series is 
remarkable for the number of leaves present resembling those of eucalypts. 
That leaves of this specialized type should be found in deposits recognised 
to be of the Eocene age is worthy of note. There are in addition other leaves 
which may be proteaceous ; they are not unlike the leaves of the living 
Lomatia Fraseri , R. Br., but I do not at the present moment express a 
decided opinion upon this question. As to the likeness of the other leaves 
to those of eucalypts there cannot be the slightest doubt ; they are a 
feature of this series, and when one bears in mind that the Bacchus Marsh 
beds—also Eocene, and therefore probably not very far removed from the 
Berwick deposits in point of age, geologically speaking—contain no similar 
leaves, one must recognise the fact as one of great significance. It shows that 
at that geological period, as at the present time, two classes of vegetation 
were growing alongside one another, namely, a “ brush ” type, characterized 
by the absence of Eucalypti and Proteacece , and an open forest type, in 
which those groups or their ancestral prototypes flourished. 
* Stanley B. Hunter, Report on the Pitfield Plains Gold-field. Special Rept. Dept, of 
Mines, Viet., 1901. 
t A. E. Ivitson, Report on the Coast Line and Adjacent Country between Frankston, Morn- 
ington, and Droraana. Month. Prog. Rept. Dept, of Mines, Viet., No. 12, March, 1900. 
t C. S. Wilkinson, Report on the Cape Otway Country. Papers presented to Parliament, 
Session 1864-5, vol. IV. Map of . Part of the Counties of Polwartli and Heytesbury, Cape 
Otway District. Papers presented to Parliament, Session 1866. A. E. Kitson, Preliminary 
Report on the Aire Marsh District. . . . Month. Prog. Rept. Geol. Surv. Viet., No. 10, 
Jan., 1900. 
§ A. E. Kitson, Report on the Rapid Survey of an Area in the Berwick-Cranbourne 
District, with plan and section. Records of the Geological Survey of Victoria, I., Part 1., 
1902. 
