292 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC CHAP. 



region, the Himalayas, Japan, New Zealand, and Antarctic 

 America, including Chile ; and there are two particular species, 

 C. ruscifolia and C. thymifolia, that occur in both cases in New 

 Zealand and the adjacent islands and in South America (Introd. 

 Chall. Bot. p. 53). The first of these, which is very common in 

 Chile, exists also in Tahiti on the crest of Aorai, 6,700 feet above 

 the sea. Drake del Castillo also describes a peculiar Tahitian 

 species, C. vescoi, of which the altitude is not given. Here one is 

 in doubt whether Tahiti derived its wide-ranging species from New 

 Zealand or from Chile ; but in the New Zealand home of 

 Coprosma, another Tahitian mountain-genus, we are afforded the 

 clue. The fruits of Coriaria possess fleshy cocci that attract birds, 

 though it would seem that the seeds of plants of this genus are 

 poisonous for man. Among the numerous fruits that form the diet 

 of the New Zealand fruit-pigeon (Carpophaga novae zealandiae) are 

 included, as we learn from Sir W. Buller in his Birds of New 

 Zealand, those of the " tupakihi " or " tutu " shrub, which Kirk 

 identifies with C. ruscifolia, the species that also occurs on the 

 summit of Tahiti. 



The Australian and New Zealand genus Cyathodes (Epacri- 

 daceae) has been already noticed in the case of Hawaii (page 282). 

 The two Tahitian species occur on the elevated mountain-ridges 

 forming the summits of Tahiti, one of them, C. tameiameiae, occur- 

 ring also in Hawaii, and the other, C. pomarae, being restricted to 

 the group. I have shown that the fruits are dispersed by frugiv- 

 orous birds, and I can only include the genus as another example of 

 the representation of the New Zealand flora in Tahiti .... There 

 remain of these so-called Tahitian mountain-genera the Antarctic 

 Nertera and the north-temperate Luzula, each represented by 

 a solitary widely ranging species, N. depressa and L. campestris, 

 which I have fully discussed under Hawaii (Chapter XXIII), in 

 which group they also occur. 



When we look at the evidence of origin supplied by the 

 four Tahitian mountain-genera possessing species that are found 

 outside the group, namely Coriaria, Cyathodes, Nertera, and 

 Luzula, we find that the first three hail from high southern 

 latitudes, and more especially from New Zealand ; and when with 

 this clue in our hands we take up the four genera Weinmannia, 

 Coprosma, Vaccinium, and Astelia, possessing only species 

 restricted to the Tahitian region, we find that all but the third- 

 named genus hail also from the south. It would thus appear that 

 the element of the Antarctic flora is much more evident in the 



