420 ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



In Africa, several forms characteristic of Europe and some 

 few representatives of the flora of the Cape of Good Hope 

 occur on the mountains of Abyssinia. At the Cape of Good 

 Hope a very few European species, beHeved not to have been 

 introduced by man, and on the mountains several representa- 

 tive European forms are found, which have not been dis- 

 covered in the intertropical parts of Africa. Dr. Hooker 

 has also lately shown that several of the plants living on the 

 upper parts of the lofty island of Fernando Po and on the 

 neighbouring Cameroon mountains, in the Gulf of Guinea, 

 are closely related to those on the mountains of Abyssinia, 

 and likewise to those of temperate Europe. It now also 

 appears, as I hear from Dr. Hooker, that some of these same 

 temperate plants have been discovered by the Rev. R. T. 

 Lowe on the mountains of the Cape Verde islands. This 

 extension of the same temperate forms, almost under the 

 equator, across the whole continent of Africa and to the 

 mountains of the Cape Verde archipelago, is one of the most 

 astonishing facts ever recorded in the distribution of plants. 



On the Himalaya, and on the isolated mountain-ranges of 

 the peninsula of India, on the heights of Ceylon, and on the 

 volcanic cones of Java, many plants occur, either identically 

 the same or representing each other, and at the same time 

 representing plants of Europe, not found in the intervening 

 hot lowlands. A list of the genera of plants collected on 

 the loftier peaks of Java, raises a picture of a collection made 

 on a hillock in Europe ! Still more striking is the fact that 

 peculiar Australian forms are represented by certain plants 

 growing on the summits of the mountains of Borneo. Some 

 of these Australian forms, as I hear from Dr. Hooker, ex- 

 tend along the heights of the peninsula of Malacca, and are 

 thinly scattered on the one hand over India, and on the other 

 hand as far north as Japan. 



On the southern mountains of Australia, Dr. F. Miiller has 

 discovered several European species; other species, not in- 

 troduced by man, occur on the lowlands ; and a long list can 

 be given, as I am informed by Dr. Hooker, of European 

 genera, found in Australia, but not in the intermediate torrid 

 regions. In the admirable 'Introduction to the Flora of New 

 Zealand/ by Dr. Hooker, analogous and striking facts are 



