INTRODUCTION. lili 
sites peculiar to the Society Islands, is related to the Sandwich Islands genera only in 
the sense of belonging to the same tribe (Helianthoidew), which is eminently American ; 
Pelea is represented in the Navigators Islands. These are practically all the outside 
affinities with the peculiar element of the Sandwich Islands flora. The smaller islands 
possess no endemic plants; and even the Marquesas are almost destitute of an endemic 
element * ; and the vegetation of all the other groups of islands of Eastern Polynesia is 
much more largely Malayan in character. Nadeaud includes nineteen species of orchids 
in his enumeration of the plants of Tahiti, amongst them half a dozen epiphytal species 
of the genera Bolbophyllum and Dendrobium. Seventy-nine orders of Phanerogamia 
are represented by about 500 species collectively; but the fragmentary character of the 
Flora may be estimated from the fact that thirty-three of the orders are represented 
by only one species each. ‘Taking all the facts into consideration, the remainder of 
Polynesia may be included in the Indian region. 
The Fragmentary Antarctic Flora. 
We retain the designation ‘‘ Antarctic,” first employed by Forster and adopted by 
Hooker f, for the coldest southern Flora, although it is not geographically an admis- 
sible term. ‘There can be little doubt that the present scattered and isolated fragments, 
forming the fringe of the southern limits of phanerogamic vegetation, constitute the 
remnant of a Flora formerly covering a more extensive area, probably in a higher lati- 
tude. The surviving portion is poor, but from its uniform composition it is probably 
of remote origin {. Northern species are associated with such as now exist only in the 
south, and the same species occur in the scattered fragments of vegetation all round the 
hemisphere. It includes the Auckland, Campbell, and Macquarie Islands, Macdonald 
(Heard), Kerguelen, Crozets, and Prince Edward Islands, South Georgia and the Falkland 
Islands, Fuegia (Tierra del Fuego) and a small portion of South-western Patagonia. 
It is true that the vegetation of the Auckland group and Campbell Island is essentially 
New Zealand in character and relatively rich, while that of the Falkland Islands is 
almost wholly Fuegian ; yet there is a stronger common element than was apparent 
when Sir Joseph Hooker wrote his ‘Flora Antarctica.” In the fourth volume 
page 234, are tabulated the more striking connections between the Australasian 
and Antarctic Floras and that of the mountains of Mexico; and in the Botany of the 
‘Challenger’ Expedition is summarized all that was known of the Botany of the 
Antarctic Region, and the relationships of the Australian and American Floras§. Since 
* See Jardin and Jouan in Mém. Soc. Sc. Nat. Cherbourg, iv. 1856 and xi. 1865. 
+ Flora Antarctica, 1844-47. 
t In a recent communication from Dr. H. P. Guppy he suggests that the vegetation of these remote islands 
is due to the agency of birds. Admitting the probability of such a thing, it must have happened very long ago, 
and not altogether in the direction indicated by him, or how is the endemic element to be accounted for? See 
‘ Nature,’ xxxviii. p. 40.  § Introduction, pp. 50-65, and pt. 2, pp. 183-281. 
