Febbuaky 28, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



311 



southern South America, G. setacea in New 

 Zealand. 



JuNCACE^. Marsippospermum grandifiorum 

 in the Magellan region, If. gracile in New 

 Zealand. 



LiLiACE^. The genus Wiirmbea has two 

 species in South Africa, one in Fernando Po, 

 four in Western Australia. Bulbinella has 

 ten species in South Africa, one in New Zea- 

 land, one in the Auckland Islands. Bulbine 

 has twenty-one species in South Africa, two 

 in Australia. Cossia has six Australian spe- 

 cies, three South African. Luzuriaga con- 

 tains three species, all of southern South 

 America, but one of them, L. marginata, oc- 

 curs also in New Zealand. 



Amaeyllidacej];. The tribe Conantherse 

 contains four genera, three of them Chilian, 

 the fourth at the Cape of Good Hope. 



lEiDACEiE. The genus Libertia has four 

 species in Chili and four in New Zealand 

 and South Australia. 



Fagace^. Nofhofagus contains twelve 

 species, and is confined to southern South 

 America, New Zealand and Australia. 



IJETicACEiE. Australina, with five species, 

 natives of Australia and South Africa. 



Peoteace^. All the genera are austral. 

 According to Engler the species are dis- 

 tributed about as follows : Australia 591, 

 South Africa 262, tropical South America 

 36, New Caledonia 27, tropical East Africa 

 25, Chile 7, tropical Africa 5, New Zealand 

 2, Madagascar 2. 



Polygon ace^. The genus Muehlenbechia 

 is confined to Australia, New Zealand, the 

 Pacific Islands and southern South America 

 and the Andes. 



MoNiMiACE^. Laurelia sempervirens in 

 Chile, L. NovcB-Zealandim in New Zealand. 



XJMBELLiFEEiE. The gcuus Azorella with 30 

 species distributed in Australia, New Zea- 

 land, southern South America and the Andes . 



Epaceidace^. The whole family is Aus- 

 tralasian, save one species occurring at 

 Fuegia. 



Si'YLiDEiE. The genus Phyllachne has one 

 species in the Magellan region, three in 

 New Zealand. 



, In closing. Professor Britton remarked 

 that despite the occurrences cited, and that 

 he had not been able to treat the subject 

 exhaustively, the similarity of the floras 

 was in reality very slight, and that in his 

 opinion it was not necessary to invoke 

 former land connection across the Antarctic 

 region in explanation. 



The Terrestrial Invertebrata. By Peof. A. S. 



Packaed, Brown University. 



In comparing the terrestrial Arctic and 

 Antarctic regions the conditions are most 

 unlike, and literallj^ as wide apart as the 

 Poles. The Arctic regions form a large pro- 

 portion of the land hemisphere, with a com- 

 paratively abundant terrestrial flora and 

 fauna. During the Neocene Tertiary, the 

 arctic land masses were more extensive than 

 now, more continuous, and with little doubt 

 their subtropical life-forms, both plant and 

 animal, constituted an assemblage which 

 sent out waves of migration passing south- 

 ward and colonizing either side of the Amer- 

 ican and Eurasian, late Tertiary, continents. 

 The present Arctic and Alpine life, as also 

 the plants and animals of boreal and north 

 temperate Eurasia and America are with 

 little doubt the modified descendants of the 

 Tertiary Arctic regions. ^ 



"When we pass to the South Pole the condi- 

 tions are, in the light of our present knowl- 

 edge, diametrically opposite. The conti- 

 nental Antarctic land masses may or may 

 not be connected. Until 1893 a human be- 

 ing had not landed on the mainland, and 

 even then the ice and snow-clad land re- 

 vealed only a few lichens, and the rocks a 

 few specimens of Tertiary strata. Not a 

 trace of terrestrial invertebrate life was dis- 

 covered. 



Should, as it is to be earnestly hoped, an 

 Antarctic expedition at no distant day ex- 



