90 THE WORLD OF LIFE 



being nearly as two to one. The plants are probably not 

 far from the same proportion ; for if we take those of Europe 

 with North Africa at io,ooo, and add thereto those of the 

 Flora Orientalis of Boissier (12,000), and the China flora 

 of Hemsley (9000), and allowing that the species common 

 to any two of these may be about equal to additional species 

 of the whole of North Asia and Japan, we get a total of 

 3 1 ,000 species, which is far beyond the highest estimate of 

 the Nearctic flora with all the sub-species included. 



The birds of the Ethiopian and Oriental Regions appear 

 to be approximately equal in numbers. The flowering plants 

 are even less known. Those of tropical Africa with Madagas- 

 car, Mauritius, etc., must reach about 22,000 species ; while 

 temperate South Africa has 13,000. Allowing the species 

 common to both to equal those yet undescribed from tropical 

 Africa, we get a total of 35,000 species for the Ethiopian 

 flora. 



That of the Oriental Region is much more difficult to 

 arrive at. Taking 15,000 species for the tropical portion of 

 the flora of British India, and adding 7000 for Indo-China, 

 5000 for the Philippines, 4000 for Java, and the same for 

 additional species of Malaysia proper (Malay Peninsula, 

 Borneo, and Sumatra), and 2000 for Celebes, we have a 

 total of 30,000, which, considering that the land area of 

 this region is less than half that of the Ethiopian, shows 

 what is probably a fair approximation to the number of its 

 flowering plants ; though I believe it will be below rather 

 than above the actual amount. 



Coming now to the Neotropical Region (including all 

 South America and tropical North America), we find our 

 estimate of the birds to be almost double that of either of 

 the other tropical regions. By means of a rough estimate 

 (p« 59) I have arrived at 80,000 species as a not improbable 

 number of the flowering plants for the Neotropical Region ; 

 and allowing fully for future discoveries in the Malayan 

 Islands and Indo-China, the numbers in the Oriental Region 

 are not likely to much exceed half this number, thus agreeing 

 very well with the proportionate numbers of birds in the 

 same regions. 



The Australian Region is of less importance from the 



