NOTES ON SUB ANTARCTIC FLORAS 139 



many it is most improbable that they ever covered such enormous 

 distances under conditions similar to those of the present day. 

 Even Wallace and Engler, who are thoroughly opposed to the bold 

 theories of sunken continents, admit the Antarctic Continent may 

 have been a source from which both South America and New 

 Zealand have derived species, and that it once formed some 

 sort of a passage between the two. 



Diels (Engler's Jahrb. 22, 1897) has treated the question in 

 an admirable way, showing how geographical, and thereby cli- 

 matic changes affected the New Zealand flora, referring to the 

 strong evidences of the existence of much more land on that side 

 of the pole as late, perhaps, as in the Pliocene. 



Schimper and Schenck (Wiss. Ergebn. d. Deutsch. Tiefsee- 

 exped. Valdivia, II, 1905) think that the configuration of the land 

 has been much the same as now, at least since the early Tertiary, 

 and that there never was a connection between the Antarctic 

 Continent and the lands surrounding it, the depth of the ocean 

 being too great to permit any interpretations of this kind. 



Werth (Deutsch. Stidpolarexped. 8, 2) is opposed to such 

 views finding that we must reckon with the Kerguelen flora as 

 being largely of Preglacial age and as occupying more land at 

 that time than at present, or we shall not come to an acceptable 

 explanation of the present plant distribution. He admits that 

 Postglacial migrations can have taken place, but denies that 

 they would suffice to explain the actual floras. 



Cheeseman, in his recent memoir (The Subantarctic Islands 

 of New Zealand, vol. 2, 1909) adopts the view of Schimper, at 

 least for the dispersal of circumpolar species which, if they could 

 travel to Kerguelen from Fuegia might as easily continue their 

 course from there and finally reach Macquarie Island or other 

 places. However, he admits the possibility of a land connection 

 between South America and the Antarctic, as well as a larger New 

 Zealand, bringing it nearer to Victoria Land; a direct commu- 

 nication on that side he finds very improbable. 



Chilton (Ibid., Summary of Results) is strongly impressed 

 by the great number of facts derived from botany and zoology 

 and unanimously pointing towards an old Antarctic fauna and 



