1919.] 
Benson.—Mesozoic Floras of Australasia. 
29 
A REVIEW OF RECENT RESEARCHES ON THE 
MESOZOIC FLORAS OF AUSTRALASIA. 
By W. N. Benson, B.A., D.Sc., F.G.S., Professor of Geology, University 
of Otago. 
A. C. Seward, On a Collection of Jurassic Plants from Victoria, Rec. 
Geol. Surv. Viet., vol. 1, pt. iii, p. 155. 
P. Kidston and D. T. GWynne-Vaughan, On the Fossil Osmundaceae, 
Part 1 , Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. 45, pt. 3, 1907 ; id., Part 5, 
Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. 50, pt. 2, 1916. 
E. W. Sinnott, Some Jurassic Osmundaceae from New Zealand, Ann . 
Bot., vol. 28, p. 47, 1914. 
E. A. N. Arber, The Earlier Mesozoic Floras of New Zealand, N.Z. 
Geol. Surv. Pal. Bull. No. 6, 1917. 
A. B. Walkom, The Geology of the Lower Mesozoic Bocks of Queens¬ 
land, with Special Reference to their Distribution and Fossil Flora 
and their Correlation with the Lower Mesozoic Bocks of other Parts 
of Australia, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., vol. 43, pp. 37-115, 1918. 
H. Woods, The Cretaceous Faunas of the North-eastern Part of the 
South Island of New Zealand, N.Z. Geol. Surv. Pal. Bull. No. 4, 1917. 
C. T. Trechmann, The Age of the Maitai Series of New Zealand, Geol. 
Mag., dec. 6, vol. 4, pp. 53-64, 1917. 
C. T. Trechmann, The Trias of New Zealand (Abstract of paper read 
before the Geological Society of London, 7th February, 1917). 
A. B. Walkom, Mesozoic Floras of Queensland, Part 2: The Flora of 
the Maryborough (Marine) Series, Queensland Geol. Surv. Publica¬ 
tion No. 262, 1918. 
The study of the ancient floras is one of the most difficult of the 
sciences that are associated with geology, and is one in which a fair 
degree of precision, both as regards the systematic classification of forms 
and their significance as indices of geological age, has been obtained, 
mainly through the work of the last thirty years. Hence it follows that 
the work of those scientific pioneers who laid the foundation of our know¬ 
ledge of the fossil floras in this part of the world cannot satisfactorily be 
employed in making a detailed comparison between our rock forma¬ 
tions and those more recently investigated in other regions. A revision 
according to modern methods is necessary. In 1904 Professor Seward 
studied in detail the Mesozoic flora of Victoria, in 1918 appeared the 
late Dr. Arber’s revision of the Mesozoic flora of New Zealand, while 
Dr. Walkom’s study of the Mesozoic floras of Queensland has been followed 
by a critical revision of all the Australian literature and a general summary 
of its bearing on the geological history of that land. It may, then, be of 
interest to compare Dr. Arber’s conclusions with those of Dr. Walkom 
in connection with the evidence of the marine faunas. 
Both these authorities are of the opinion that in Mesozoic times there 
was a land connection between Australia and New Zealand. The Austra¬ 
lian region, says Dr. Walkom, was a continental area of low land covered 
by wide-spreading fresh-water lakes, and this extended across to New 
