284 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC CHAR 



The drupes of the Pacific species, S. freycinetianum, that occurs 

 alike in Hawaii, the Marquesas, and Tahiti (Drake del Castillo), 

 measure about half an inch. There can be little doubt that with 

 this tree, as with the species of Cyathodes above mentioned, which 

 also links together Tahiti and Hawaii, there has been up to recent 

 times an interchange by means of frugivorous birds between these 

 two regions, some 2,000 miles apart. 



The small seeds of the capsular fruits of Lysimachia could be 

 transported in birds' plumage or in dried soil attached to their feet 

 or feathers. The seed-like fruits of Chenopodium were probably 

 dispersed by somegranivorous bird, much as nowadays our partridges 

 carry about in their stomachs the similar fruits of Atriplex. The 

 long-awned fruits of Deyeuxia were, it is likely, transported in 

 birds' plumage, and doubtless also those of Panicum ; whilst the 

 nutlets of Carex and Rhynchospora might have been carried about 

 in a similar fashion. 



The distribution of the non-endemic species of these Hawaiian 

 mountain genera may perhaps aid us in determining the original 

 source of the genus as well as in confirming the conclusions formed 

 concerning the other mountain genera that only possess species 

 restricted to the group. Lysimachia, Chenopodium, Carex, 

 Rhynchospora, Deyeuxia, and Panicum are found in both the Old 

 and New Worlds. Since Hillebrand remarks that one of the six 

 species of Lysimachia (L. spathulata) occurs in Japan and in the 

 Liukiu, Bonin, and Marianne groups, we have here a valuable 

 indication of the route followed by a genus that has not been 

 recorded from the oceanic groups of the South Pacific. 



The capricious distribution of the genus Carex in the Pacific is 

 remarkable, and it is noticed by Hemsley in the Introduction to 

 the Botany of the " Challenger" Expedition. No species have been 

 recorded from Tahiti, the Marquesas, and Rarotonga, but three 

 Fijian species are mentioned by Hemsley, and there is another in 

 Samoa. Of the five Hawaiian species given by Hillebrand, two 

 are endemic. Of the rest, C. wahuensis (oahuensis), Meyer, occurs 

 also in Korea and Japan, whilst C. brunnea, Thunb., is found in 

 Japan and Australia, and the third, C. propinqua, Nees., occurs 

 all round the border of the Pacific Ocean, from Kamschatka 

 through Alaska south to the Straits of Magellan. These three 

 species all possess a home in common in north-east Asia, and 

 probably there lies the source of the Hawaiian species of Carex a 

 conclusion which would help to explain the irregular distribution 

 of the genus amongst the South Pacific groups. 



