DERIVATION OF THK FLORA AND FAUNA 337 



very little use on longer distances. I cannot help drawing the conclusion from 

 this that the sedentary habit was acquired after the j^reat colonization iiad taken place. 

 Few phytogeoj^raphers have had greater fait!) in tiic capacity of wide-ranging 

 marine birds to carry diaspores than Griskbacii. In his di.scussion of bipolar 

 species found in the far north and the far south but ncjt at all in intermediate 

 zones he selected (iciitiaua piostrata I laenke as the best example. Its distribu- 

 tion is due, he says, to the wanderings of Diojiiedea cxulaiis which, 



abweichend von der Lebensvveise der mcistcn anderen Zugvogel, iiber beide Hemisphiiren, 

 von Kap Horn bis zu den Kurilen imd Kamtschatka, wandert und die Standorte jener 

 rrtanze in tier arktischcn unci antarktischen Flora in Verbindung setzt. Mit der Beute, 

 die dieser V'ogel verschlingt, kann er auch Sanien von Ptianzen, welche, mit den Flussen 

 ins Meer gcsinilt, in den Magen der Fische iibergehen, in einzelnen Fallen ausstreiien, 

 so dass sie an fernen Kiisten aus scincm Diinger aufkcinien {^^2§ . 469). 



I have not come across any comments on this bold theory. It is difficult 

 to take it seriously, but to Grlsebacii the only gap in his argumentation was 

 that nobody had happened to witness such an event. If he is wrong, he asks, 

 why is there no trace of this Gcntiana in the Andes, where it would thrive just 

 as well as in the Alps and in the mountains of Asia.-* To this should be re- 

 marked that G. prostrata is a polymorphous species of wide range and that it 

 does occur in the Andes from Colombia to Chile, suggesting that it has mi- 

 grated south along the mountains without the assistance of the albatross. 



Wallace (27^.259) tells us, on the authority of Moselev, naturalist to the 

 "Challenger" expedition, of the great albatross breeding on Marion Island in the 

 midst of dense, low herbage; I can add that this bird also breeds on South 

 Georgia and on some other southern islands, but as far as I know they do not 

 shift breeding places, and even if they did, they do not go on shore between 

 the breeding seasons. Tavlor, in his important paper on Macquarie Island [26 j), 

 tells us about a giant petrel which was captured, tagged and released on this 

 island and shot on South Georgia, 8000 km away, four months later, but these 

 birds are often seen on land where they attack the penguin chickens; this was 

 at least the case on Paulet Island in the Antarctic. Whether they aid in the 

 dispersal of diaspores is unknown.^ Taylor quotes an observation, made on 

 Macquarie, that seeds were found adhering to the feet of an albatross. These 

 birds, when building their nests, regurgitate an oily fluid which makes seeds stick 

 to their feet. Macquarie Island was ice-covered during the Glacial epoch and the 

 plants, perhaps with the exception of some cryptogams, must have arrived since 

 the retreat of the ice. The vascular flora consists of 35 species, all except 4 

 occurring in the New Zealand subantarctic area — the 3 species with a claim 

 to be regarded as endemic should be reinvestigated — while those 4 species are 

 found in subantarctic South America, from where they are derived. All Mac- 



' According to Tavlor (p. 570) the two truly Antarctic phanerogams, Deschampsia ant- 

 arctica and Colobanthus crassifoHiis, are very rare in the Antarctic and reproduce only vegeta- 

 tively. I do not know where he obtained this information. They are scarce but have been 

 reported from manv locaHties along the coast and adjacent islands of Palmer Land between 

 lat. 62 and 68 and, in favourable situations at least, both of them flower and produce ripe 

 seeds — see my paper in Botan. Tidsskrift vol. 51, 1954- 



22 - 557857 The Nat. Hi-it. of Juan Fernandez ani Easter Isl. I'ol. I 



