180 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
PLANT LIFE UNDER PAST CLIMATIC CONDITIONS, 
In his lecture at the November meeting, Mr. Barnard out- 
lined in a most interesting manner the various geological ages, 
and, by the aid of a chart loaned by the Botany School, made 
the successions of plant life very clear, beginning with the pre- 
Cambrian times when there were only indefinite traces of life. 
He showed how the great ice ages had influenced the flora. ‘The 
earliest signs of plant life occur in the Silurian and consist of 
remains of sea weeds. The great Carboniferous age was illus- 
trated with slides of fossils and of reconstructed plants. The 
coming of Angiosperms was shown, and the gradual increase of 
this type of plant, while other types dwindled and died out. 
Australia, he said, had been a distinct continent for a long 
period of time, joined in Permian times to Tasmania and Antarc- 
tica, and round to South America, also with Asia to form Good- 
wana Land. The surface of the land has greatly changed, the 
present Great Divide was formerly occupied by a low divide, 
and the courses of the rivers were different. All these factors 
were stressed as bearing on past and present flora of our 
country. The flora of Australia was compared, and contrasted 
with that of other lands. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
Empupar, At the October meeting, Mr. Gallard read a note 
on a colony of these interesting insects, as follows:—Under a 
soft-barked tree at Epping on September 13th I found a winged 
Embiid and on further search in a mass of the white webbing 
secured about 18 fine specimens mostly of the early wingless 
stage. After about three weeks in captivity, feeding them on 
sugar, six of them developed wing pads and ultimately matured 
into perfect winged adults. They spun .a mass of white web in 
the bottle in which they were confined, well ramified with tunnels. 
During the day their heads could be seen at the openings, but 
on being disturbed they retreated out of sight. The nest was 
about 14 inches square. One female laid a few small brown 
oval shaped eggs. A few weeks later a peculiar wingless Procto- 
trypid like wasp emerged. In appearance and action it re- 
sembled the Embiidae, and I presume it to be parasitic. 
Lugarno Ferry. A melancholy interest attaches to the re- 
port on the excursion to Lugarno Ferry, it being the last con- 
tribution of our gifted member, Miss Hilda M. Crispo, prior to 
her death. 
Erratum. eat 1924, P- 155. Pennant Hills Gully, 
for 1892 read 1922 
