448 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



the facts adduced below entirely invalidate the foregoing 

 statement. Not only is it inaccurate as regards Africa and 

 Madagascar, but the comparison of Great Britain with 

 Japan is singularly unfortunate, so far, at least, as the flora 

 is concerned. It is true that there is a northern flora 

 extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and including 

 Great Britain in its area, which is essentially the same from 

 sea to sea. It is also true that Britain and Japan have a 

 number of genera and some species in common ; but here 

 the resemblances cease. In Britain there is practically no 

 endemic element ; there is very little variety in evergreen 

 trees and shrubs, and there is very little variety of shrubs 

 and trees with conspicuous flowers. In Japan all these 

 conditions are reversed ; and there are local endemic types, 

 or such as it has in common with China, which are equally 

 peculiar and distinct in their way from the British as those 

 of the Ethiopian Region, by which I mean Africa and the 

 islands. It would unduly lengthen this article to enter far 

 into particulars of the Japanese flora, but it may be explained 

 that it is a part of what may be termed the Chino- Japanese 

 flora, which is intimately connected with that of the Hima- 

 layas, and very different from that which forms a belt in a 

 somewhat colder northern zone, from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific. The late Maximowicz, who was undoubtedly the 

 first authority on the botany of Eastern Asia, and whose 

 knowledge was based upon several years' residence and 

 journeyings in the Amur country and Japan, published 

 some interesting statistics (4) illustrating the gradual east- 

 ward diminution of the absolute numbers and percentages 

 of species having a wide area — that is, either circumpolar, 

 or common to both Europe and Asia. In Baikal- Dahuria 

 they form, approximately, 53*4 per cent; in Mongolia, 46^2 

 per cent; in Mandshuria, 39*6 per cent.; in the Peking- 

 district, 31*9 per cent.; and in Japan, 16*2 percent. The 

 percentages of endemic species in these five areas are 

 respectively: 9*4, 8-3, 87, 13*3 and 44*0; from which it 

 appears that there is an enormous increase on passing from 

 the continent to the islands of Japan. Subsequent dis- 

 coveries in Central and Western China have revealed the 



