II "^ 



I 



■ t- t 



. d :'-4r 



4.22 PLANTS FROM NEW CALEDONIA. 



remains of an area on which, prior to its isolation by subsidence the 

 Podocarpcfe and Arancariere attained a great development, and which, 111 

 fact became an important centre for the evolution and distribution of 



c 



The 



relationships of the Podocarpea) and AgafhU, on the one hand, are with 

 New Zealand; and this line of migration is carried on into the New 

 Hebrides, New Guinea, Fiji, Malaya, and India. In Araucaria and Calhtns, 

 on the other hand, wo have links with Eastern Australia and Norfolk Island. 

 A><sfrota.r„s is the most southerly representative of the Taxece, whose centre 

 oF distribution is further north, and which were probably evolved subse- 

 (luently to the northward migration of the Todocarpcre. New Caledonia is 

 the station of one species of Lihocedrus in its distribution around the shores 



of the Pacific Ocean. 



The New Caledonian Conifers belong to a number of difEerent ecological 

 typos, and are found growing in a great variety of situations. They are, 

 however, developed in the greatest abundance in the montane forest on 

 serpentine rocks above 3000 feet altitude, where they are present to such a 

 deoree that one may speak of Conifer forest, though Angiospermic trees 

 and shrubs are also present. To this formation belong four Conifers of 

 superficially similar appearance, all being trees with irregular crowns and 

 Taxus-like leaves— viz., Dacrydium taxoldes, Acmoinjle Pancheri, Fodocarpus 

 viinor, and P. ferruginoides. Here also are found Callitns sulcata 

 var. alpina, Lihocedrus austro-caledoaka, Fodocarpus usta, F. gnidioides 

 var. ca^spitosa, P. lovgefoliolaia, and Dacrydium lycopodioides, while Arau^ 

 cavia BalanscB forms a conspicuous feature of many monntain summits by 

 projecting high above the general level of the forest. Generally speaking, 

 none of Tlicse Conifers can be called well-grown trees; their trunks are 

 dwarfed, stunted, twisted, and gnarled, and their branches show signs of 

 striK'-glo with the severe climatic conditions and the competition of epiphytic 

 mosses and lichens. The impression given is that they have survived on 

 the mountain summits, owing to their qualities of stubborn resistance to 

 unfavourable conditions rather than to any special suitability to those 



conditions. 



This montane ConitV-r forest is evidently of the same type as that found 



on the summits in New Guinea, Fiji, Borneo *, etc., though made up of 

 different floristic elements. It is impossilde to resist the impression that 

 these Conifer-capped mountain-tops are islands in an Angiospermic sea, 

 originally continuous but now isolated by subsidence and by the deep 



* The lower limit of the Conirer foreat in New Guinea and Borneo is at a considerably 

 hi. her altitude than in New Caledouia-this belnj? clearly related to climatic conditions 



due tu latitude. 



