Genus 

 Marattia 



Xo. of species 

 25 



Angiopteris 



Archangiopteris 



Kaulfussia 



I (or 60!) 



I 

 I 



Alacxoglossum 



I 



Danaea 



20 



in the Ha^vaiian flora only by a single species, AI. Douglasii. 

 The geographic range of the famih '^• ^cheated by the following 

 table: 



Range 

 tropics 



Old World tropics, Australasia, S. Japan 

 southwestern China 

 Indo-Malaya, Philippines 

 Borneo 

 Tropical America 



From this table will be seen that Hawaii, isolated in the vast 

 stretches of the Xorth Pacific Ocean, and lying on the rim of the 

 tropics, is the northernmost limit of the family's range in the 

 entire Pacific basin. 



Three theories may be presented to explain the occurrence of 

 M. Douglasii in the Hawaiian Islands. First: It also occurs m 

 the Fiji Archipelago. Inasmuch as the bulk of the native Ha- 

 waiian flora shows affinities with that of the southwest Pacific, 

 it is possible that the pala was introduced through natural agen- 

 cies, — ex. wind, — from the South Pacific. Second: The native 

 Hawaiians habitually used the pala for food and medicine. The 

 natives originally migrated to Hawaii from Tahiti, and for many 

 centuries maintained intercourse with their southern kinsfolk. 

 During this period of migration and intercourse, numerous food 

 plants^ were introduced into Hawaii. It is not at all unlikely 

 that the pala was deliberately introduced, by the natives, during 

 this epoch. Its present distribution in the islands is in no way 

 incompatible with this hypothesis. 



Third: The entire Hawaiian Archipelago has undergone pro- 

 found subsidence during recent geologic time.^ In early times 

 the islands were united by land connections. This formed a 

 "Pan-Hawaii-land," very much larger in area, higher in eleva- 

 tion, and diversified in topography and climate, than the present 

 archipelago. On the warm lowlands of Pan-Hawaii-land may 

 have existed great tropical jungles of Marattiaceous ferns and 



* MacCaughey, \'. Food Plants of the Ancient Hawaiians. Sci. Monthly 4: 

 75-80. 1917- 



' MacCaughey, V. Outstanding Biological Features of the Hawaiian Archi- 

 pelago. Amer. Nat. in press. 



