BOTANY, 149 
the great divisions of the Eastern Hemisphere. No fewer than fourteen of these are 
monogeneric and inconspicuous in the vegetation, except Casuarina and Nepenthes. 
Casuarina and Pandanacee are prominent and widely spread in maritime districts, yet 
they have not reached America independently of human agency. ‘The Flagellariacez 
and Philydracew also largely affect coastal regions, ‘The arboreous Dipterocarpacew, 
numbering some 300 species, is the only large family in this category, and it 
forms a conspicuous feature in the forests of India and Malaya—rare in Africa, and 
apparently absent from Australia. . 
Including the families respectively nearly or quite peculiar to Africa, to Eastern 
Asia, and to Australasia, there are fifty-three families in the Old World which are not 
represented in America, as against twenty-five restricted to the New World. 
From the foregoing particulars of distribution it is evident that harmonies do not 
exist on a large scale in the same way that obtains, for example, in the different 
islands of the Galapagos Archipelago. ‘The peculiarities of plant-distribution are 
infinite and reducible to no laws: take, for illustration, the composition and present 
distribution of the families of root-parasites in relation to their affinities—the widely 
spread Balanophoraceze and Orobanchacex and the local Lennoacee of North Mexico, 
or such essentially insectivorous families as the Nepenthacee of the Old World 
and the Sarraceniacez of America and the widely spread Lentibulariacee. One 
might go on multiplying the exposition of the anomalies and curiosities or phenomena 
of distribution. But just one more example: the Lardizabalacee comprise about 
half-a-dozen small genera, ‘several of them distinct monotypes ; two of the genera are 
endemic in Chili, and the rest of the order is restricted to North India, China, and 
Japan. 
Mr. R. I. Pocock, in his account of the Mammalia, seems to have arrived at the 
same inconclusive results as myself in respect of the plants; but he evidently favours 
a former southern land-connection as a solution of the main problem, and, barring 
independent developments of life, it is the only theory that commends itself to my 
mind. No other explanation seems adequate *. 
* It was originally planned to discuss more fully in this plaee the composition and origin of the Central 
American Flora, and at least six months were devoted to the collection of materials for this purpose; but a 
combination of adverse circumstances has hitherto hindered the completion of the work and rendered it 
impossible within the immediate future. It is a great disappointment to me that I could not furnish 
Dr. Godman with something in my line more worthy of his monumental publication. 
I have great pleasure in recording the faet that I have received much assistance from American Botanists, 
who have most liberally presented their published works. My thanks are more especially due to Prof. T. 8. 
Brandegee, Dr. N. L. Britton, Mr. H. Pittier, Dr. B. L. Robinson, Dr. J. N. Rose, Captain J. Donnell Smith, 
and Dr. W. Trelease.—W. B. H. 
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET, 
