NEW GUINEA AND THE PAPUANS 391 



Araucaria, Styphel Ui , etc., which are fcKind only in 

 Aiistraha and New Guinea. The island may, however, 

 be said to have a well-marked individuality in its plants, 

 as it has in its birds. Baron von Mliller, reporting on 

 the highland species gathered during Sir William Mac- 

 gregor's expedition to the summit of the Owen Stanley 

 range, records that of the eighty plants obtamed in the 

 highest altitudes nearly half the number seem to be 

 endemic. Of these nineteen are of Himalayan type 

 (Ehododendrons, Vacciniums, etc.) Two represent new 

 genera — one allied to the exclusively Italian Nananthea, 

 the other to the Australian and chiefly alpine Troclio- 

 carpa. Four plants are identical with species found on 

 Mount Kina Balu in Borneo. Certain species occurring 

 in England, yet not cosmopolitan, were also found, among 

 them Taraxacum officinale, Scirpus ccespitosus, Lycopoclium 

 clavatum, Hymenophyllum Tunbridgcnse, and the common 

 male fern. Arboreal vegetation was found to cease at 

 11,500 feet. On Mount Douglas and other mountains 

 of the range a cypress (Lihocedrus Papuana) constitutes the 

 principal forests. The Arfak Mountains have yielded a 

 very similar flora. What the lofty summits of the as yet 

 unascended Charles Louis range will afford the botanist 

 is one of the many interesting problems of New Guinea, 

 but it is possible that the 5000 feet by which they are 

 supposed to exceed the Owen Stanley Mountains may 

 yield much that has not been found on the latter. In 

 Northern New Guinea the Australian connection is very 

 little marked. Thus the Germans have not yet recorded 

 any species of eucalyptus, though this genus is known in 

 Misol Island ; and only one acacia, one of the most 

 marlvcd of Australian forms. 



The zoology of New Guinea is at present far better 

 known than its botany, and is exceedingly interesting; 



