October 2, 1919] 



NATURE 



JOI 



FLORA OF MACQUARIE ISLA\D. 



^y HE recently issued part of the Scientific Reports 

 ^ of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 

 iL)ii-i4 (series iii., vol. vii., part 3), entitled "The 

 \ ascular Flora of Macquarie Island," by T. F. 

 Cheeseman, contains some important conclusions on 

 the origin and distribution of the southern floras. 

 Macquarie Island is situated on a narrow submarine 

 ridge, surrounded by water more than 2000 fathoms 

 deep, about 600 miles to the south-west of New- 

 Zealand. Its greatest length is barely twenty-one miles, 

 and its greatest breadth under four miles. The island 

 is little more than a range of mountains, the exposed 

 ridges bare and wind-swept, while in the hollows are 

 numerous shallow lakes, and the coastal hills are 

 deeply scored by ravines. The climate is marked by 

 a low summer temperature, much cloud and fog, and 

 constant high winds. Dr. J. H. Scott, who visited 

 the island in 1880, describes the landscape as barren 

 in the extreme. There is not a tree or shrub, but 

 long stretches of yellow tussock are varied with 

 patches of the bright green Stilbocarpa polaris, the 

 Macquarie Island cabbage, a plant resembling very 

 fine rhubarb in growth, and of Pleurophyllum, a hand- 

 some Composite, with long, sage-green leaves and 

 purple flowers. On the hillsides are globular masses 

 of Azorella, forming dense, solid cushions often 4 ft. 

 across. Near the hilltops is an abundant growth of 

 rich brown mosses. Hooker ("Flora Antarctica") 

 mentions seven species of flowering plants and one 

 fern as known from the island. ^Ir. A. Hamilton, 

 on whose collections the present account is based, 

 spent nearly two years in the island, and Mr. Cheese- 

 man now enumerates thirty flowering plants and four 

 ferns. Of these, three grasses are endemic, while 

 of the remaining thirty-one species eighteen extend 

 to New Zealand, and eleven of these are found in no 

 other country. A remarkable fact is that fifteen, or 

 practically one-half of the non-endemic plants, are 

 also found in F'uegia or the South Georgia to Ker- 

 guelen groups of islands. Fuegia lies 4000 miles east 

 of Macquarie Island, with no trace of land between, 

 and South Georgia, further east, at about 5800 miles. 

 Westward there is open sea until Kerguelen Island is 

 reached, about 3250 miles distant. The extraordinarily 

 scantv flora of the South Georgia-Kcrguelen- 

 Macquarie areas, which lie between parallels roughly 

 corresponding with the north of England and the centre 

 of France, is probably due mainly, as Prof. Rudmose 

 Brown has suggested, to the short summer with its 

 comparatively low temperature ; but the almost con- 

 tinuous westerly gales must also act adversely on 

 plant growth. 



-After a brief comparative review of the vegetation 

 of the various land areas of the sub-Antarctic zone, 

 Mr. Cheeseman concludes that during Tertiary times 

 there have been onlv two directions in which the 

 vegetation of the rest of the world can have 

 approached the sub-.Antarctic zone and Antarctica 

 itself, or along which an interchange of species could 

 take place, namely, the direction of New Zealand 

 and that of .South .\merica. The rich and varied 

 flora of New Zealand, in addition to its obvious .\us- 

 . tralian, Pacific, and Malayan alliances, has also an 

 evident .\ndine and Fuegian affinity, which is still 

 greater in the New Zealand sub-.Anlarctic islands. 

 These islands in early Tertiary times were part of a 

 greater New Zealand, and a northward extension of 

 -Vntarctica might have reduced the distance between 

 it and the New Zealand area to one capable of being 

 passed bv" plants and animals. An indication of a 

 former continuous or broken land connection between 

 .Antarctica and South America, presumably in 

 Oligocene times, is found in the comparatively 



NO. 2605, VOL. 104] 



shallow bank which curves round by way of the 

 I-'alkland Islands and South Georgia. The fossil 

 Tertiary flora discovered by Dr. Andersson in 

 Graham Land, comprising species of well-known 

 recent South American and New Zealand genera, is 

 of interest from this point of view. It suggests an 

 .Vntarctica largely free from ice and snow, and sup- 

 porting a numerous flora along the shores of the 

 continent. We may imagine a regular exchange of 

 species between .Antarctica and Fuegia. and also a 

 passage of species between New Zealand and Antarc- 

 tica. In this way we may account for the presence 

 of a New Zealand element in the South .American 

 flora and a .South American element in New Zealand. 

 The subsequent Glacial epoch caused much extinc- 

 tion of species in the southern flora. .At its close 

 Macquarie Island had lost its higher plants except 

 the few grasses which now constitute its endemic 

 flora, Kerguelen had suffered almost as badly, and in 

 South Georgia the whole of the vascular flora had 

 perished. With the advent of a milder climate onlv 

 two sources of supply remained, Fuegia and the New 

 Zealand area. South Georgia and the Kerguelen 

 group, both favourably placed in the line of the 

 constant westerly winds, received almost the whole of 

 their new flora from Fuegia, whik' Macquarie Island 

 obtained a large proportion from the comparatively 

 close New Zealand sub-.Antarctic islands. 



EDUCATION IN BRITISH INDIA. 



T^HE Bureau of Education, India, has issued an 

 -'• interesting quinquennial review of the progress 

 of education in British India for the period 1912-17. 

 The facts are set forth in a statistical abstract cover- 

 ing 100 folio pages. They deal with all forms of 

 education, primary, secondary, professional, and uni- 

 versit}', under various heads, such as the number of 

 institutions public and private, the scholars in attend- 

 ance, local and State expenditure, number and quali- 

 fications of the teachers, and cost of education in 

 elementary and secondary schools and in professional 

 and university colleges. The statistics diff^erentiate 

 between the various races, together with Europeans 

 and .Anglo-Indians, and between the different creeds, in- 

 cluding Hinduism, Mohammedanism, and Buddhism. 

 The returns refer only to British India, with an area 

 of 1,034,716 square miles and a population of 

 about 244,000,000, of which number 124,747,805 are 

 males and 119,273,295 females. The Hindus number 

 163,611,094, Mohammedans 57,419,309, Buddhists 

 10,642,812, Parsis 86,155, Europeans and Anglo- 

 Indians 265,254, Indian Christians 2,226,464, others 

 9,989,185 — figures of much interest in view of the- 

 present Indian unrest. Of this vast number only 

 7,851,946, in which is included 1,230,419 females, are 

 under instruction in all types of educational institu- 

 tions, or about 3 per cent, of the population. In 

 1906-7 only 5,388,632 were under instruction, and in 

 1911-12 6,780,721. 



The number of arts colleges in 1916-17 was 134 

 with 47,135 students; of professional colleges, 61 with 

 11,504 students; of special schools, inclusive of 

 training, medical, agricultural, and other technical 

 schools, 4861 with 143,604 students; of secondary 

 schools, 7693 with 1,186,335 pupils; of prirnary 

 schools, 142,203 with 5,818,730 pupils. In addition 

 to these there were 37,803 private institutions, 3009 of 

 which were advanced with 60,618 pupils, and 

 34,794 were elementarv with 584,020 pupils. The 

 total expenditure on public instruction in 1916-17 was 

 7,525.537/., of which sum there was spent on ad- 

 ministration, inspection, scholarships, buildings, furni- 

 ture, apparatus, etc., 2,239,749/. On the arts colleges 



