Antarctic Plants in Polynesia i<y] 



America, we are probably mistaken. The endemic sections in 

 Africa and New Zealand suggest relicts from a larger Paleant- 

 arctic area. These do not prevent us from recognizing, in the 

 islands east of Magellania, signs of a more recent oversea migra- 

 tion in A. adscendens, although this species is represented by 

 endemic varieties or subspecies in the various islands. The dis- 

 tribution of Acaena is a rather complicated matter. 



After this somewhat lengthy introduction, we shall proceed 

 to Acaena in Polynesia. It is represented by a single endemic 

 species, which is found in the mountains of Hawaii, and belongs 

 to Section III. This section contains only 2 species; the second is 

 a native of subantarctic America and ranges north to the Andes 

 of Valdivia. Again we are confronted with the mysterious con- 

 nection between Hawaii and South America. 



Another tricentric genus I shall quote is Soph or a sect. Ed- 

 tvardsia. Some authors retain this as a separate genus because of 

 its distribution and its winged pod, but the pod oflFers no reliable 

 character; in the two Juan Fernandez species, which certainly 

 cannot be separated from other Edwardsias, the pods are not 

 winged. Even if we refuse — and I think we should — to let dis- 

 tribution determine the taxonomic position of Edwardsia, we 

 recognize nevertheless the importance of distribution in reflect- 

 ing the independent history of this section within the southern 

 hemisphere. The American and New Zealand sectors are of 

 about the same strength, with 3 species endemic in New Zealand, 

 I in Chatham, i in Lord Howe Island, 2 restricted to southern 

 Chile, and 2 to Juan Fernandez. One of the Chilean species, S. 

 macrocarpa, occupies a rather independent position, whereas all 

 the others are near relatives of the Neo-Zelandic species. The 

 African sector contains i species in Diego Alvarez, allied to the 

 Neo-Zelandic species, and i in Reunion. There are 2 species in 



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