BY THE REV. J. E. TENIS0N-W00DS, F.L.S. 131 



Pacific species occur to the extent of a fraction over six per cent. 

 The localities are various. New Caledonia is probably the island 

 which furnishes the largest number of species, though some are 

 found in the islands near the North-east Coast. There is a smaller 

 number of species common to New Zealand and Brisbane : in all 

 not quite five per cent. Considering the immense distance 

 between the two places and the amount of sea which intervenes, 

 it is an astonishing thing that the per centage is so high. 



In all these estimates it must be borne in mind that the widely 

 spread species are to be found amongst the grasses, ferns, sedges, 

 and rushes, and if these were eliminated from the calculation, 

 the per centage of species which are common to Brisbane and 

 other portions of the world, would be reduced one third for every 

 place except other parts of Australia. Or in other words it is 

 very largely in the grasses, sedges, rushes, and ferns that the 

 flora of Brisbane has any representatives outside the continent. 

 If moreover, we were to remove the common weeds and introduced 

 plants the isolation of the Brisbane flora from all except Australia 

 would be much more complete, and though its resemblances 

 (generic) would be many and wide, its actual specific union would 

 be with the nearest portions of the Asiatic continent. 



For comparison, it may be welTto insert here Baron v. Mueller's 

 valuable report on the tropical vegetation of Australia, from 

 Gregory's exploration to the sources of the Victoria Eiver, North 

 Australia. It may be remembered that the Baron was the 

 botanist to this expedition, and his report the most valuable we 

 have yet on the vegetation of Northern Australia. He says, 



1 . " The various arboreous and shrubby clothing of the Eastern 

 slopes of the Eastern Ranges, where numerous Indian genera of 

 umbrageous trees are interspersed with Australian ; this, called, 

 the " Brushwood" or Cedar country, further contains the most 

 numerous representatives of the Polynesian and Malayan floras ; 

 together with Cycas 30 feet high, and various palms of the genera 

 Calamus, Areca, Caryota, and Lwistona. 



