G. M. Tuomsoy.—On the Origin of the New Zealand Flora. 495 
is almost identical with a Fuegian species, and one or two with Tasmanian 
forms. It appears to me probable that the singular Chatham Island Lily 
(or Forget-me-not), Myosotidium nobile, is derived from an originally barbed 
plant, and that by long isolation it has lost the barbed bristles on the 
nuts characteristic of the Australian genus Cynoglossum, its nearest allies, 
just as it has lost the hispid character considered so distinctive of other 
Boraginee. 
The last mode specified in which birds carry seeds, is—attached to the 
mud or earth which clings to their feet. This subject has already been 
so carefully and conclusively worked out, particularly by Mr. Darwin 
in the “Origin of Species,” that I need not do more than refer to 
it. Sir J. D. Hooker, in the recently-published (1879) account of the 
botany of Kerguelen Island (Challenger Expedition Reports), considers 
that the few species of flowering plants of that island, presenting, as 
they do, a decided F ugian facies, have been thus brought by land birds. 
These are very abundant on the Falkland Islands, where the vegetation is 
identical with that of colder South America, and favoured by the prevalent 
westerly gales and the numerous stepping-stones, probably in the form of 
islands formerly existing, these land birds have probably found their way to 
Kerguelen Island. And he goes on to say that ‘‘the absence of such birds 
from the present avi-fauna of the island offers no obstacle to such a specu- 
lation, as such immigrants would on arrival speedily be destroyed by the 
Predatory gulls and petrels of the island.” It is probable that some of the 
antarctic and South American forms occurring in New Zealand, and also in 
Tasmania and South-east Australia, have been thus introduced; and this 
probability is increased if we assume, with Mr. Wallace, that changes similar 
to those which have occurred in the arctic regions have also taken place in 
the antarctic, viz., that great alternations of climate have occurred in past 
Ai during some of which the now ice-clad antarctic continent bore an 
t flora of south-temperate forms, obtained probably from South 
America, the nearest continental area. 
(3.) The third mode of plant-dispersion alluded to is by means of ocean 
arrents. This subject has also been carefully examined by Mr. Darwin, 
- 8nd the results of his interesting experiments are detailed in the “Origin of 
_ Species,” and have been largely employed by Wallace in accounting for the 
_ flora of oceanic islands, such as the Azores. I need not recapitulate these 
ea lis eS NE 
