12 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS, ETC. 
Sir William Guise remarked upon the utility of such investigations 
as those of Mr. Elwes, wherein facts were being investigated with 
reference to what they tell us of the past history of the globe. Theorists 
had accounted for some phenomena by suggesting the existence of 
submerged continents or islands that appeared to be constantly dipping 
up and down, but the Challenger had shown that where one of these - 
continents was supposed to exist the depth of the sea is such that it would 
cover the highest mountains now extant. Some facts had not been 
explained, for instance the peculiar flora of St. Helena, or the large 
tortoises of the Galapagos islands, and we required more workers such 
as the author of the present paper, to continue their investigations, for 
we wish to know how these animals and plants got there, and what 
relationship they have with other lands. 
Mr. Day remarked that he had been investigating the geographical 
distribution of the fresh water fishes of India, and his conclusion as to 
the sub-divisions of the Indian region coincided with Mr. Elwes’, that 
there were three separate fish-faunas—the first on the primary hills of 
the western Ghauts, extending into Ceylon, and on the Malay Archipelago, 
by way of the Andaman Islands, and also identical with some Himalayan 
forms; secondly, an African element, which had entered India by 
way of Syria, along with some palzarctic genera; and, lastly, a Malayan 
form, which had been derived by way of Burmah and Siam; and that 
these last two met in the Hindustan sub-region, where the land was of 
tertiary formation, with here and there secondary rocks cropping out. 
Dr. Wright congratulated the meeting on the observations on the 
geographical distribution of animals and plants they had heard that 
evening. The subject was almost a new one, and was only a fragment of 
the truth, the last condition of the earth’s surface presented to the 
investigation of man. The geological evidence tells us of a Mediterranean 
fauna which existed in the Arctic regions. In Australia we find an old 
race of fossil kangaroos, to which those existing are mere pigmies. The 
same with the South American armadillo. Facts still require to be 
collected, and in time we may obtain sufficient evidence to work out the 
problem we are now seeking to discover. 
Mr. Elwes having replied, the meeting adjourned. 
THE BLADDERWORTS AND THEIR BLADDERS. 
BY W. SOUTHALL, F.L.S. 
A notice of a habitat of Utricularia intermedia may be of sufficient 
interest to merit record. I found the plant this autumn near a little 
tarn on the left of the road from Coniston to Hawkshead, Lancashire, a 
little below the water-shed on the Coniston side. The tarn itself has a 
boggy margin, and is girdled with a more abundant vegetation than is 
usual around thetarns of the {Lake district; various sedges, the white 
water lily, and the buckbean, forming the larger portion of it. The 
season was too late for most flowering plants, but a few, as Sparganium 
minimum, & somewhat rare plant, were still in flower. Around the larger 
pool were some small pits of peaty water, and in several of those grew 
U. intermedia, and in others U. minor ; but, as far as my observation went, 
the two species were not intermingled. It is stated in Darwin’s 
