MACLOSKIE: REVISION OF FLORA PATAGONICA. 299 



ANTIQUITY OF THE ANTARCTIC FLORA. 



A notice by E. Hackel about the Magellan Flora as related to that of 

 Europe and North America, appears in Engler's Botan. Jahrbuch., 1907, 

 xl (2) ; Hackel takes 83 species indigenous in Magellans-land, and iden- 

 tically, or vicariously represented in N. America and Europe ; but wanting 

 or extremely rare in the tropical Andes. These include 20 species of 

 Gramineae, 12 of Cyperaceae, 36 other Monocotyledons and only 15 Di- 

 cotyledons. Hence he concludes that Gramineae and Cyperaceae are the 

 most ancient of the flowering plants, being probably remains of an old 

 flora, which included such Dicots as Fagus, Veronica, Euphrasia, and 

 which is supposed to have migrated by peculiar routes from the North 

 Temperate to the South Temperate zone. Their absence from the trop- 

 ical Andes centra-indicates the assumption of their overland journey by 

 the American Cordillera. More probably there was an ancient land- 

 connection between Magellans-land and Australia, and New Zealand, as 

 evidenced by numerous plant species common to these lands, and also 

 struthious birds. The supposition of their having originated in the south 

 and thence migrating northwards is refuted by the fact that such plants 

 as Primula farinosa L. and Gentiana prostrata Haenk., have their nearest 

 related forms not in the far south, but in Europe and Asia. 



