INTRODUCTION TO THE REPORTS ON INSULAR FLORAS. 31 



temperate regions, and there is no doubt that these two genera combined almost cover the 

 whole range of phanerogamic vegetation. 



Uncinia, a genus of between twenty and thirty species, differs from Carex in the 

 rhachilla protruding from the utricle and being uncinate or glochidiate ; and Carex micro- 

 glochin, which is widely dispersed in the northern hemisphere, and recurs in the extreme 

 south of America, is a connecting link between the two ; indeed, some botanists refer it to 

 Uncinia. The genus Uncinia ranges from Australia and New Zealand through the islands 

 in the southern part of the Indian Ocean to Fuegia, and northward along the Andes to 

 Mexico and the West Indies. The parts actually inhabited are Lord Howe's Island, one 

 endemic species ; the mountains of Victoria and Tasmania, three species common to both 

 localities ; New Zealand, ten species, one of which extends to the Auckland and Campbell 

 Islands, and another to Kerguelen, Amsterdam, and St Paul Islands, while a third is very 

 near, if not the same, as the one species found in the Sandwich Islands. Besides the one 

 New Zealand species found in Amsterdam Island there is another, which also inhabits 

 the Tristan da Cunha group. There are also about ten species in the American 

 region, chiefly concentrated in the extreme south. One species is recorded from the 

 Falklands, but this we have not seen, and there is one endemic species in Juan Fernandez ; 

 one ranges from Ecuador to New Grenada, Venezuela, and Jamaica, and another, closely 

 allied to the last, is restricted to Central America and Mexico. This completes the 

 whole area of the genus, for the Abyssinian plant referred to Uncinia by Hochstetter is 

 a true Carex. 



WOODY PLANTS IN OCEANIC ISLANDS. 



The preponderance of woody plants in most remote insular floras is undeniable ; but 

 that islands " often possess trees or bushes belonging to Orders which elsewhere include 

 only herbaceous species," as stated by Darwin (Origin of Species, p. 392), is incorrect, as 

 may be seen from the following parallels in insular and continental floras. The distribu- 

 tion of arboreous Compositae is discussed separately. 



Sinapidendron (Cruciferse), from Madeira and Canaries, is represented in Spain and 

 Algeria by much more truly shrubby plants belonging to the genera Euzomodendron, 

 Vella, and Oudneya. 



Frcmkenia portvJaccB/olia, St Helena, finds a parallel in the Australian Frankenia 

 pauciflora, which is shrubby, and sometimes attains a height of three feet. 



Alsinidendron and Schiedea (Caryophyllea?), Sandwich Islands, cannot be said to have 

 exact counterparts, either continental or insular ; but the anomalous Sphwrocoma of 

 Eastern Africa and Western Asia is also truly shrubby. 



Gunnera (Haloragese), Juan Fernandez: caulescent species appear to be unknown 

 elsewhere. 



