Geological Climates

Abstract

PROF. DUNCAN is under the impression that the claim of Araucaria Cunninghami to have flourished at Bournemouth during the Eocene, rests on “a bit of a leafy part of a tree,” and that this bit is “squashed.” The foliage is however abundant there, occurring almost wherever vegetable remains are found, from the east of Bournemouth Pier to half a mile beyond Boscombe. In one place, where a bluff is literally full of it, the disarticulated branchlets are perfect, and not in the least degree compressed. Again, the determination was not made by Prof. Haughton, but rests upon my statement that this foliage and that of A. Cunninghami cannot be distinguished one from the other. That it is Araucarian foliage I am perfectly satisfied; but whether the existing Australian species is identical and unmodified, must remain doubtful until other organs besides foliage are found, it being by no means absolutely certain that because the foliage is identical the species are so. The discussion raised by Prof. Haughton, and continued by Prof. Duncan and Mr. Wallace, seems therefore hardly worth prolonging, since it is based upon an assumption that is only probably correct. But even if the identity were proved, a single species is not satisfactory evidence of former temperature.