64 Proceedings. 



Nine species of ferns are noted, amongst whicli are Alsophila antarctica. related to 

 the south Brazilian A. feeana, and Polypodium Xafhorstii. Dus., n.sp. ; Pceniopteris 

 bJechnoides. Dus., n.sp. ; Asplenium antarcticum, Dus.. n.sp. ; Dryopteris Seymourensis, 

 Diis., n.sp. ; D. antarctica, Dus., n.sp., all of which more resemble subtropical forms 

 of soutli Brazil than those of temperate South America. 



The remaining fragments of leaf-impressions were not in sufficiently good preserva- 

 tion to allow of their determination with any degree of certainty. 



A superficial glance over tlie above determinations of the specimens shows that the 

 former plant-world of Seymour Island is related to two present South American floral 

 regions — namely, the temperate flora of southern Chile, and, but even more closely, 

 the subtropical plant-world of south Brazil. Thus the Tertiary flora of Seymour Island 

 is a mixture of tem]ierate and subtropical species. Dusen seeks to explain this remark- 

 able phenomenon. He dismisses the idea of transportation by ocean-currents, as such 

 would bring a dispersion rather than a collecting-together of plant-remains : his opinion 

 is that there existed in Tertiary times on Seymour Island a mixed flora, partly temperate 

 and partly subtropical, the former occupying the higli lands and the latter at low levels, 

 such as is the case in southern Chile at the present time, and that the remains of both 

 now exist together, the temperate species having been brought to the lowlands by streams 

 and there mixed with the remains of both of the subtropical forms. [The reviewer is 

 of opinion that probably temperate and subtropical forms grew side by side, as in almost 

 any lowland forest of New Zealand at the present time, and that the hypothesis of floods 

 bringing down the mountain- plants is not required.] 



That the ])lant fossils of Seymour Island probably belong to the Tertiary period 

 is supported by the fact that they are very similar to existing species. 



The author lays stress on the fact that there is little relationship between the flora 

 under consideration and that of Australia and New Zealand as now existing. He cites 

 Knightia as the sole connecting-link, and concludes that land connection between the 

 Antarctic and Australasia must have been severed at a very early date — namely, before 

 Tertiary times. The species of Knightia is considered by the author, together with 

 that of New Zealand, to have been derived from the same antarctic stem-forms. 



[The above summary of a work of the greatest scientific importance to us 

 in New Zealand is unfortunately only built up from two reviews — one by Neger, in 

 Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrifi for the 5th July, 1908, and the other by Gothan, in 

 Botanisches Centralhlatt of the 12th January, 1909. The reviewer considers that too 

 little stress is laid on the Australasian aflinity with the Tertiary flora of Seymour Island 

 when, besides the presence of Knightia AndreiB, whose only close relative is A', excelsa, 

 of New Zealand, there are also such remarkable genera, common to New Zealand and 

 Australia as well as South America, as Nothofagus, Drvmys, and, above all, Laurelia. 

 Australian affinity is also shown by Lomatia and Araucaria, though this latter might 

 suggest an earlier land connection than Tertiary.] L. C. 



4. " Grundziige der Pflanzenverbreitung in Chile," by Karl Reiche. 

 (Bd. viii der '" Vegetation der Erde," herausgegeben von A. Engler und 

 0. Drude. i-xiv und 1-374 pp., mit 55 Fie. im Text und Tafehi. und 2 

 Karten. Leipzig, Engelmann ; 1907.) 



The fourth part of this comprehensive work deals with the relation of the Chilian 

 flora to other floras, and Chapter ii is devoted to its relationshi]) with that of New Zea- 

 land, the various elements being respectively designated " tropical," " aiistral " (southern 

 extremity of South America), "" antarctic," and represented by the following signs : 

 ■' trop.," ■■ aus.," " ant." Lists are given of the families identical to the two regions, 

 83 in number ; of the identical genera without identical species, 101 in number, some of 

 which have species closely related in both floras ; of identical species, 65 in number ; 

 of families occurring in New Zealand but absent in Chile. 11 in number ; and of families 

 occurring in Chile but absent in New Zealand, 44 in number. 



Regarding mosses, 50 species are common to the Magellan region (45° to 56°) and 

 to New Zealand and Tasmania, one or both. 



With regard to drawing any conclusions from a statistical study of the respective 

 floras, the author points out that New Zealand extends through far fewer degrees of 

 latitude, corresponding merely to the part of Chile lying between the Province of Col- 

 chagua, 34i°, and the Gulf of Penas, 47 J°. This excludes the whole of the northern desert 

 flora, and many types of the extreme south. Such a limitation, the reviewer would 

 point out, does not recognise the new botanical region as extending. 



