Tasmanian Plants.-] INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. lxxxv 
There is thus a very remarkable rise in the proportion of European forms in Tasmania, and this 
is not due to the extension of all the European plants of Australia into Tasmania, for there are in 
the hitter island several Furopean genera and species that have not been found on 
Carex Buxbauiuii. 
Carex vulgaris {fid. Muell.) 
Carex canescenB ditto. 
Carex echinata ditto. 
much more largcl 
Qf the species of 
y into th 
Tasmani; 
Ranunculus aquatflis. Droba ncmoralis. Montia fontana. 
Anemone. Hierochloe borealis. Trisetinn subspicatuni. 
Thlaspi ? 
On the other hand, the Victoria Alps contain several northern European forms which have 
been found in Tasmania, as — 
Turritis glabra. Lysimachia i olgaria. 
Sagina procumbens. Alisma Plantago. 
Myriophyllum verticillatum. Actinocarpus. 
Alchemffla vulgaris. Hydrilla dentata. 
Samolus A alerandi. Carex stellulata. 
The New Zealand Flora is another which enters proportionately much i 
Tasmanian than into the Australian, nearly 200 of the genera ; 
being common to Xew Zealand ; and these countries further contain various representative genera and 
species, which will be found in the Introductory Essay to the ' New Zealand Mora, and in the section 
of this Essay devoted to a comparison of the New Zealand and Australian Floras. 
From the higher latitude of Tasmania, and its loftier mountains, it contains further a larger 
proportion of antarctic plants, nearly 100 genera and 50' species being common to this island and 
tlu groups south of Xew Zealand, Fuegia, the Falkland Islands, etc. 
A strict comparison of the continental Australian and Tasmanian Floras cannot be fully carried 
out, until much larger suites of specimens from both countries hare been selected and compared. 
It is evident that many of the plants that rank as peculiar to Tasmania, are slightly though per- 
manently altered forms, no less than 100 of the 1063 being so considered, with more or less certainty 
or plausibility, by Mueller or Archer or myself, and some by all of us. To enter into a discussion 
of them here would be quite useless. 
Another interesting subject of detail, requiring fuller materials, is the alpine Flora of Tasmania, 
upon which Mueller's Victorian Alps collections have thrown so much light. I find, on a rough 
estimate, that there are 200 alpine and subalpine species in Tasmania (of which half are alpine) ; 
considering as such those which are most prevalent in or confined to altitudes above 3,000 feet : of 
these 30 are probably altered forms of lowland plants ; 120 are of Australian genera (10 of them are 
probably varieties) ; about 10 are of New Zealand genera; 55 are of European genera (17 of them 
probably varieties) ; and 25 are Antarctic forms. 
This proportion of varieties amongst the alpine and subalpine plants, amounting as it does to 
15 per cent., is very large; the proportion amongst the lowland plants being considerably under 
10 per cent. The small proportion of varieties amongst the alpines belonging to Australian genera 
compared with those of European genera is also worthy of notice, as an exemplification of an 
observation made by Mr. Darwin, that the species of widely distributed genera are more variable 
than those of local genera. 
The locality indicated by the letters " Ch." as the habitat of many Tasmanian plants collected 
by Mr. Archer, consists of a tract of country (in which is included his estate of Cheshunt, about ten 
miles south-west of Deloraine and 600 feet above the sea), extending southerly from Mount Gog, on 
