212 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
C. Goodenough, but as this is an aggregate species with an almost 
unlimited number of forms, and is virtually cosmopolitan, the case 
is not so striking as some of the others. Other sedges which come 
into this class are Carex Oederit and C. pseudo-cyperus. 
The cosmopolitan element may be dismissed with a few words. © 
It is chiefly tropical and subtropical. Its members consist of species 
of easy distribution and with the power of getting on in the world. 
Some examples are—the common cudweed (Gnaphalium luteo-album) ; 
Bidens pilosa; a grass, Oplismenus undulatifolius ; the toad-rush 
(Juncus bufonius); Sewpus cernuus; Solanum mgrum,; and the 
floating duckweed (Lemna minor). 
As the floras of Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands are more or 
less closely related to that of New Zealand, something must be said 
concerning them. : 
There are 209 species of ferns, fern-allies, and seed-plants in Lord 
Howe Island. [f the latter -alone be considered, 47 are also New 
Zealand, but of these only 3 are confined to the two floras—e.g., 
Gahnia xanthocarpa, Uncinia filiformis (but the Lord Howe variety 
is endemic), and Hymenanthera novae-zelandiae. More interesting is 
the presence of Coprosma prisca, which by some would be merged 
into the New Zealand taupata (Coprosma retusa), and a species of 
Carmichaelia (C. exsul), the genus, as already pointed out, being 
otherwise purely a New Zealand one. 
The number of species of ferns, fern-allies, and seed-plants of 
Norfolk Island is 175. Of the seed-plants, 49 also occur in New 
Zealand, but many of these are of wide distribution. Only 2 species 
are confined to Norfolk Island and New Zealand, but one of these 
is the New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax). The endemic Coprosma 
Baveri is almost identical with the taupata of New Zealand (C. 
retusa). ' 
Having dealt at some length with those living plants whose dis- 
tribution sheds a faint light on the origin of the New Zealand flora, 
there only rémains a brief consideration of what the fossil plants — 
can tell. 
At the present time there are only a few mosses, lichens, and 
two seed-plants —a grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and a species 
of Colobanthus — representing ordinary plant-life on the Antarctic 
Continent. The Swedish Antarctic Expedition showed that a much 
greater flora must have been present at one time. Thus on Seymour 
