Laing. — On the Alga of Netu Zealand. 309 



and New Zealand, one is antarctic, and ten are endemic. 

 Here, again, we have a clear illustration of the Australian 

 connection. 



But this connection must not be exaggerated. A refer- 

 ence to a different district will be useful to us here. 

 Seventy - seven per cent, of our genera are found in Aus- 

 tralia ; 60 per cent, of the Cape genera are also found in the 

 Atlantic and Indian Oceans. From an estimate of this crude 

 description, it appears that as far as ratios go our connection 

 with Australia is rather closer than that of the Cape with the 

 Bast Indies or the warm Atlantic ; but it must be remembered 

 that the Algae of Australia are highly characteristic, and, 

 whereas m New Zealand we have only nine endemic genera — 

 viz., Marginaria, Landsburgia, Scytothamnus, Ghladymenia, 

 Apophlma, ^Eodes, Ectophora, Abroteia, Pandorea — there are 

 in the neighbourhood of Port Phillip alone representatives of 

 about fifty genera confined to Australia, or, while 8 per 

 cent, of our genera are endemic, about 28 per cent, of 

 those found in south-eastern Australia are exclusively Aus- 

 tralian. Thus, while our marine flora has marked affini- 

 ties with that of Australia, there are also marked differences 

 between them, many of the most distinctive and prominent 

 Australian genera being unrepresented here. This, of course, 

 only confirms what we know of the origin of our flora from 

 the evidence of the flowering plants and ferns. 



But the study of percentages, whilst giving an appearance 

 of reliability, is very apt to be deceptive, and more striking and 

 reliable information is sometimes to be obtained from the ex- 

 amination of limited groups. We have already seen that our 

 Fticacece are largely Australian, and before passing on to the 

 examination of the distribution of our species I must call 

 attention to the distribution of the New Zealand genera of the 

 order Laminariece. Our representatives of this order have un- 

 doubtedly an antarctic facies. They are five in number — viz., 

 Adenocystis, Echlonia. Lessonia, Macrocystis, and Chorda. Of 

 these, Adenocystis and Lessonia are antarctic in their distribu- 

 tion ; Macrocystis and Ecklonia, though not exclusively ant- 

 arctic, reach their greatest development in the colder southern 

 seas. The genus Chorda, is represented by one species here 

 — C. lomentaria, said to be found in Tasmania, Falkland 

 Islands, North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. I doubt, how- 

 ever, whether the southern plant is specifically identical 

 with that of the Northern Hemisphere. That our Fncacece 

 should be mostly Australian, but the Laminariece largely 

 antarctic, is a remarkable fact, which I shall not attempt to 

 explain. 



It remains now to consider the distribution of our species. 

 In these our shores are comparatively poor. We have only 



