

436 PLANTS FROM NEW CALEDONIA. 



The {general relatioiislnps of the New C^iledoniun Pteridopliytes nre with 



the floras oE tlio surrounding hmd-massos — more es[)ocially witli the East 

 Australian and Alalayan regions. The species fall into two main groups : 



firstly, those wiili geographical connections with temperate Australia, 

 Tasmania, New Zealand, Norfolk, and Lord Howe Islands ; and, secondly, 

 those with connections with the ti*o[iical Malay, Australian, and Polynesian 

 areas. The second group markedly preponderates*. The Pteridophyta phiy 

 a very large part in the vegetation of the island. Great areas of the serpen- 

 tine districts are denf=cly covered with Pteridhnn aquilinvm var, esculcntxun^ 

 Gleiclicnia linearis^ ov G. circhiata. In open situiitions the schist rocks of the 

 centre and north are frequently clotlied with Lijropodium ccrnmim. In the 

 forest on all soils Vascular Cryptogams are a constant and abundant 

 feature: liomogeneous associations dominated hy single species are fi'equent, 

 from local groups of arborescent ferns in the tree layer, and groves of 

 Marattias, Leptopferis ^\^'dkesiana^ Selaginella megastarliya^ S, ItordeiformiSy 

 etc., in the undergrowth, to the dense covering of lUiny ferns, such as , 

 yVichimiaues aJham and 7\ saxifragoules^ on rucks and trunks. Ferns occur 

 in greater or less abundance in every main kiiul of ecological position, from 

 mangrove-swamp to rock-crevice and from the sun-scorched hillside to the 

 constantly saturated conditions of the cloud-rorest, 



Litth^ sup[)ort is given by the Pteridophyta to Schlechter^s view (in 

 Engl. Put, Jahrb. xxxvi. 8) that New Caledonia can be divided into two 

 floristic regions, north ;ind south — the north having relationships with the 

 Mala3'an flora, and the soutli with the floras of E, Australia and New Zea- 

 land, The four Malayan species of Ferns^ mentioned by Diels {op. cit. 

 xxxix, 1) as being collected by Schlechter in ihe north of the island only, 

 were all found by mo in Schlechter's '' Sudbezirk '^ also ; KephroJepis 

 cordifoUa on Mt. Mou, DavaUla <dpnna near the Ngoyc Piver^ Ptevls incisa 

 by the Ermitage Stream, and Ojdiioglossum pendulvm in {lie forests of Mt, 

 Oanahi, In the genus Li/copodht))}^ on the other hand, as Prifzel {loc. cit. 13) 

 points outj the pi-imitive forest (Epiphytes reacli their southern limit in the 

 north of New Caledonia ^ \vlnle the subtropical Australian element is 

 represented in tlie south. My collections, on the whole, support this 

 conclusion, though L. squarrosinn var. pacijicum was found i?i the south 

 on Mr. Humboldt ; the newly recordiMl /v, varinm^ previou>ly known in 

 Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Auckland Islands, was found on 

 Mt. Koglii in ihe soulh. On (lie whoh*, in considering the Pteridophyta as 

 well as other groups, the inijn'ession I have derived is that the local dis- 

 tribution of jilants on the surfaee of N(^w Caledonia (an area Avliicdi there is 

 ev(My reason to believe has remained in isolation from a remote period) is 

 prinuirily a matter of edaphic and climatic conditions, ard that the a])parent 



* See CLrist, * Geograpliic der Fame/ p. i?34 (Jrnn, 1910;. 



