210 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
not a few are considered by some botanists as truly identical, or 
separated only by trivial characters: Hierochloe redolens ; Carpha 
alpina; Gaimardia setacea; Marsippospermum gracile (there are 
only two species in the genus); Luzula racemosa var. Traversii ; 
Enargea parviflora ; Colobanthus subulatus ; Ranunculus crassipes ; 
Geum parviflorum ; Sophora microphylla and its allies; Oxalis lactea 
(O. magellanica of Cheeseman’s Manual); Coriaria sarmentosa; the 
New$Zealand varieties of C. thymifolia : Apium prostratum ; Tetra- 
chondra Hamiltonii (there are only two species in the genus, and 
this falls into a family by itself—the Tetrachondraceae); the genus 
Jovellana with two species New Zealand and two other species 
Fuegian; Veronica salicifolia (the Fuegian representative is V. 
Fonckii, of south Chile); Donatia novae-zelandiae (the genus, which 
contains only two species, falls into a family by itselfi—Donatiaceae). 
This list could easily be enlarged by adding species a little more 
distantly related, or sections of genera, and so on. At any rate, 
the two lists show that a considerable number of species are common 
to the two floras, while a consideration of the contrivances of these 
species for dispersal does not warrant, in the majority of cases, any 
suggestion that they can have journeyed across a wide ocean such 
as hes between the two regions at the present time. 
With the exception of the ferns and lycopods, many of which 
are also Malayan or Polynesian species, the Malayan element of 
the flora makes itself felt rather in the joint possession by 
Malaya, Polynesia, and New Zealand of certain genera than in that 
of species. Thus a large percentage of New Zealand trees and 
shrubs are of Malayan origin. The following list gives some idea of 
the importance of the Malayan element in this regard, using for the 
sake of the reader the names of well-known plants, though unless 
the contrary be stated the species cited is purely a New Zealand 
one: The kiekie (Freycinetia Bankswi) ; Zoysia pungens (this grass is 
also Australian and east Asian) ; the toetoe-grass (Arwndo conspicua) ; 
all the perching- orchids; the milk-tree (Paratrophis microphylla 
and the two other species) ; the parataniwha (Elatostema rugosum) ; 
the mangeao (Litsaea calicaris) ; the tawhero and the kamahi (Wein- 
mannia sylvicola and W. racemosa) ; the various species of Pittosporum ; 
the wharangi (Melicope ternata) ; the kohekohe (Dysoxylum spectabile) : 
the akeake (Dodonaea viscosa) (which also extends beyond New 
Zealand to Polynesia, Malaya, and many tropical and subtropical 
) 
