4IO GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION [Chap. VI 



Letter 317 As you care so much for insular floras, are you aware 

 that I collected all in flower on the Abrolhos Islands? but 

 they are very near the coast of Brazil. Nevertheless, I think 

 they ought to be just looked at, under a geographical point 

 of view. 



Letter 318 To J. D. Hooker. 



Down, Nov. [1845]. 

 I have just got as far as Lycopodium in your Flora, 

 and, in truth, cannot say enough how much I have been 

 interested in all your scattered remarks. I am delighted to 

 have in print many of the statements which you made in 

 your letters to me, when we were discussing some of the 

 geographical points. I can never cease marvelling at the 

 similarity of the Antarctic floras : it is wonderful. I hope 

 you will tabulate all your results, and put prominently what 

 you allude to (and what is pre-eminently wanted by non- 

 botanists like myself), which of the genera are, and which 

 not, found in the lowland or in the highland Tropics, as far 

 as known. Out of the very many new observations to me, 

 nothing has surprised me more than the absence of Alpine 

 floras in the S[outh] Islands. 1 It strikes me as most inexplic- 

 able. Do you feel sure about the similar absence in the Sand- 

 wich group? Is it not opposed quite to the case of Teneriffe 

 and Madeira, and Mediterranean Islands ? I had fancied 

 that T. del Fuego had possessed a large alpine flora ! I 

 should much like to know whether the climate of north 

 New Zealand is much more insular than Tasmania. I should 

 doubt it from general appearance of places, and yet I pre- 

 sume the flora of the former is far more scanty than of 

 Tasmania. Do tell me what you think on this point. I 

 have also been particularly interested by all your remarks 

 on variation, affinities, etc. : in short, your book has been to 



1 See Flora Antarctic, I., p. 79, where the author says that "in the 

 South .... on ascending the mountains, few or no new forms occur." 

 With regard to the Sandwich Islands, Sir Joseph wrote (p. 75) that 

 " though the volcanic islands of the Sandwich group attain a greater 

 elevation than this [10,000 feet], there is no such development of new 

 species at the upper level." More recent statements to the same effect 

 occur in Grisebach, Vegetation der Erde, Vol. II., p. 530. See also Wallace, 

 Island Life, p. 307. 



