o 



1 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



Soon 



are 



The European province, indicated by the Pyrenees, Alps, and Carpathians, extends 



th d to the lowlands of Scandinavia and eastward to the Volga. 1 To the south 



it includes the mountain systems of the three Mediterranean peninsulas. It is bounded 



on the north by the Circumpolar, on the east by the Siberian, on the south-east by the 



Caucasian provinces. It contains 40 species, | of the whole; of these 34, or 85 per 



cent., are endemic 



The mountain-system lying north-east of the great Central Asian desert indicates 



the Siberio-Turkestan province. Besides the several sections of this system— the Tian- 

 shan, Alatau, Altai, Sajan, Baikal, and Jablonoi ranges— the province includes the plains 

 of Turkestan and Siberia to the west and north, and of Yarkand (East Turkestan), 



•ia Northern Mongolia, and Mandshuria to the south and east of them, while on 

 the extreme east it includes Saghalien. In the east it thus is in contact with the 

 Japanese province, to the north it passes into the Circumpolar, to the west into the 

 European, to the south-west into the Caucasian, and then for a short distance into the 

 Himalayan provinces. It is separated from the Chinese province on the south by the 

 desert of Gobi. It has already yielded 50 species, about \ of the whole ; of these 32 



endemic, and one other is represented only by an endemic variety:— the endemic 



percentage is thus 65. • • 



The islands forming the empire of Japan constitute the Japanese province. It has 

 but slight connection on the west with the Chinese, on the north-west with the Siberian, 

 and on the north with the Circumpolar provinces. It possesses eight species, of which 

 four are endemic, two others are represented only by endemic varieties, while of still 

 another, which extends to Japan from Siberia and China in its typical condition, Japan 

 possesses an endemic variety. The eighth species, moreover, (cf. Maxim., Mel. Biol, xii, 892) 

 has only recently been reported from the extreme south of China, and the Chinese plant 



no means positively identified by Mr. Maximowicz with the Japanese species. The 



endemic percentage is 66*6. 2 



The American province comprises British Columbia, Manitoba, and Canada, the 



United States, Mexico, and, finally, a small isolated Andean district in New Grenada. It 



on the north into the Circumpolar province. There have been reported from 

 it 24 species, about -^ of the whole; of these 21, or 87*5 per cent., are endemic. 



The Caucasian province includes the Caucasus, extends north to the Kuban and 

 Kuma rivers— or to 45° N. Lat. between the Euxine and the Caspian— and, through the 

 intervening Armenian highlands, south-west to the Taurus and Asia Minor, south-east to 

 the Elburz and Persia. It has but slight connection with the European province on the 





passes 



west, along the north-east it passes into the Siberio-Turkestan, and on the extreme east 

 into the Himalayan provinces. It contains 15 species, -£$ of the whole, of which 11, or 

 733 per cent., are endemic. 



The Chinese province is indicated by the Kuen-lun, Nan-shan, and Peling ranges. 

 It extends northwards to the desert of Gobi, which separates it from the Siberian region, 

 and southwards through the intervening tableland of Tibet to the Indus, the Sanpo, 

 and the Yang-tse-kiang rivers, passing, however, insensibly into the Himalayan province. 



1 P. lata Stev., having been collected in Southern Ural, between that and the Volga, and even between the Volga 



(Maxim., Mi 



and P. resupinata Linn., having been reported from Perm {Mi 



necessary 



districts from Europe and annex them to Siberia. P. sylvatica 



Linn, is, as Blytt has shown, 



specie 



Ma 



