310 Carl S1{ottsberg 



not been found in New Guinea, but their existence there, 

 which is not impossible, would make no difference. Astelia, 

 Acaena, Gunnera, and Coprosma are represented by one species 

 each. It is hard to believe that any of these genera were blown 

 from New Guinea by a poleward wind, not only to New Zea- 

 land and the subantarctic islands, but also to Magellania, vari- 

 ous islands in the southern Indian Ocean, and Africa, where 

 they took the form of new sections and subgenera. It seems that 

 Miss Gibbs was so struck by the wonderful development in 

 New Guinea of another Antarctic (but not Polynesian) genus, 

 Drimys, and by the discovery of the antitrade air currents, that 

 she underrated the significance of the actual systematic structure 

 and distribution of what I still prefer to call Antarctic genera. 

 The force that, according to her opinion, carried them from 

 New Guinea, would hardly have made them members of the 

 Polynesian plant world. 



OsBORN Botanical Laboratory, 



Yale University, 



New Haven, Connecticut. 



