451 



a subsidiary base for his Antarctic Expedition, enabled the 

 making of arrangements for a systematic survey of the island and 

 the investigation of the vegetation was, during 1911-14, entrusted 

 to Mr. H. Hamilton, son of the distinguished biologist, who had 

 previously visited the island in 1894. His collection includes all 

 but two of the species obtained by Dr. Scott in 1880, and by his 

 own father in 1914, a defect more than compensated for by the 

 addition of four species, one of them an endemic species, not 

 previously recorded from Macquarie Island. Mr. Cheeseman'- 

 catalogue of the species thus includes thirty-four vascular plants, 

 of which three are finally pronounced to be endemic. Of the 

 remaining thirty-one, fifteen, or practically one-half are common 

 to the ' ring or zone of widely separated lands surrounding the 

 Antarctic continent within the parallels 45° S. to 60° S." All but 

 four are found in the subantarctic islands of New Zealand; 

 eighteen of the thirty-four extend to New Zealand proper, and 

 eleven are found in no other country. Having regard to the 

 relative proximity of the island to New Zealand these latter facts 

 and figures are not surprising. But the fact that twelve of 

 the species occur in Fuegia, and that of these six should also 

 occur in South Georgia, while eleven occur in Kerguelen — one 

 species that Macquarie shares with Kergulen does not extend to 

 Fuegia, two species that Macquarie shares with Fuegia do not 

 occur in Kerguelen — calls for further consideration. 



After carefully reasoned examination of the circumstances 

 involved, Mr. Cheeseman reaches the following conclusions. The 

 existing flora of Macquarie Island does not date further back 

 than the close of the last glacial epoch. Since then the history 

 of that flora, save as regards its three endemic species, has been 

 one of plant-migration, mainly from the New Zealand outlying 

 islands, but in some cases from the far distant Kerguelen group. 

 . If, however, Macquarie Island existed in early Tertiary times 

 when Antarctica possessed a luxuriant flora and when in all 

 probability geographical and climatic features co-operated in 

 facilitating intercourse between Antarctica and the New Zealand 

 area, the position of the island would have given it an important 

 place in a chain of plant-migrations extending from Chile to 

 Antarctica and from Antarctica to the north of New Zealand. 

 Traces of such a chain are still evident in the floras of both New 

 Zealand and South America. d. p. 



Flora of Aldabra. — In a paper on the Flora of Aldabra in the 

 Kew Bulletin, 1919, reference is made on p. 114 to a collection 

 of plants from the Seychelles, Aldabra and Assumption made by 

 Mr. Walter Fox. We now learn that this statement was based 

 on a misunderstanding, and that the collection was actually 

 made by Mr. P. R. Dupont, the energetic Curator of the Botanic 

 Station, Seychelles, who on his return from a three months' tour 

 in Aldabra and the neighbouring islands entrusted it to Mr. Fox, 

 then just leaving for England. Mr. Fox delivered the collection 

 personally at Kew, where, owing to some misunderstanding, and 

 he absence of signed labels, it was taken to be the result of an 



