LINNEAIT SOCIETY OF LONDOIS'. 2$ 



I have, in the full tabulation which I have made, placed out 

 the distribution in much greater detail, subdividing the areas ; 

 but I find in the particular case of this maritime coast flora that 

 the general result is sufficiently represented by the condensed 

 table showing distribution in longitude only. 



Owing to the remarkable uniformity in the distribution of the 

 species, I have been able to arrange them into asviall number of 

 groups. Thus, of the 8 plants headed by Carapa moluccensis, 

 Lam., eacb one extends coutinuously from Ceylun to Polynesia, 

 neither farther nor less. 



The range of all the 69 species is continuous, i. e. each plant 

 occurs in all the intermediate areas between its extreme western 

 and eastern limits ; the exceptions to this statement are seen in 

 the table to be so very few, that they may be attributed to the 

 imperfection of the collections in the Herbarium. No doubt eacb 

 grows almost exclusively on muddy, not on rocky coasts. 



The 8 species which extend to America are all abundant species. 

 Westwards, 18 plants extend to Mascarenia and 1-1 to the East 

 Coast of Africa. 



32 species extend to China, *. e. its southern coasts ; but only 

 1 (the grass Zoysia pungens, Willd.) to Japan ; 2 other species 

 to Liu-Kiu and Bonin Isles. This may be because the southern 

 coasts of Japan are rocky and without deltas. The same grass, 

 too, is the only species that extends to New Zealand. 



The two boundary-lines to the Soondreebun characteristic 

 plants run very nearly along zoologic lines of demarcation. 



Out of the 69 plants cont^idered, 32 extend to the Pacific 

 Islands, only 8 to America. Among these 8 are the only 6 found 

 in the Sandwich Islands. The most strongly marked break in 

 the whole table thus occurs between the iSandwich Islands and 

 Polynesia ; while the connection between the Sandwich Islands 

 and America is merely due to the Universal Plants. 



The numbers in the table represent (on the principle ex- 

 plained in my paper on Tabulation Areas in the Eoyal Society's 

 'Transactions') the proportional abundance of the species as 

 deduced from Herbaria. It is noticeable how abundant the wide- 

 spread species are. 



The 69 Soondreebun plants grow, nearly exclusively, on coasts 

 and islands in tropical and subtropical climates ; but there are 

 16 found very sparingly on mountains or in very sandy places. 

 The latter are weeds like Sesuvium Fortulacastrum. Of the 

 mountain species the most remarkable is the flowering fern Hel- 

 minthostachys, a widely spread sea-coast plant ; but it has been 

 collected in Wangtu, Kumaon, and Cachar. Of the few other 

 mountain collections, several are more or less uncertain to me, as 

 "VVallich's locality of Nepaul for Am oora cucullata, Eoxb. ; but 

 looking at the number of these cases, I think there is a strong 

 probability that some of them are right ; the case is parallel with 

 the occurieiice oi Plant ago maritima, Linn., and Armeria vulgaris, 

 WiUd., on mountains, but kot in the plains between the sea- 



