460 



SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OP NEW ZEALAND. 



[Systematic Botany. 



enumeration of the species that I am acquainted with is that of Wildemann, in the 

 " Results of the Voyage of the ' Belgica ' " (" Botanique les Phanerogames des 

 Terres Magellaniques "). He catalogues 585 species of flowering -plants, contained 

 in sixty-eight families and 224 genera. Adding the pteridophytes known to occur in 

 the same area, we have a total flora of 608 species, included in 235 genera. This 

 is barely more than one-third of the number known to occur in New Zealand ; but 

 then it must be borne in mind that the area under consideration lies to the south of 

 the latitude of the greater part of New Zealand. Cape Horn, the southernmost point 

 of the American Continent, is in the same latitude as Macquarie Island ; and the 

 Gulf of Penas, which we have taken as the northern boundary, is in the same latitude 

 as the middle of Stewart Island. It cannot be expected that the flora of a land 

 situated in the above position should equal in number of species that of a country 

 advancing 12° nearer the tropics. In point of fact, however, Fuegia has a much 

 more varied and luxuriant flora than the Auckland Islands, situated in the same 

 latitude. 



The Fuegian flora presents many important differences from that of New Zealand. 

 It contains thirteen families of plants not found in that country, and twice that 

 number represented in New Zealand do not occur in Fuegia proper. This alone 

 would give a different aspect to the two floras ; but there are n. any other divergences 

 of a marked character. For instance, the Com'positae constitute the largest family 

 in Fuegia, exactly as in New Zealand, but the genera are almost altogether different : 

 out of thirty-four found in Fuegia, only six occur in New Zealand, not one of them, 

 with the exception of Senecio, forming a noteworthy feature in the vegetation. 

 Olearia, Celmisia, Raoulia, and Cassinia are all entirely absent. The arborescent 

 Com'positae, so conspicuous a feature in the New Zealand flora, even as far south as 

 the Auckland Islands, are practically unknown in Fuegia. Similarly, the arborescent 

 Rubiaceae (Coprosma), everywhere present m the New Zealand area, are conspicuous 

 by their absence in Fuegia. Veronica, with its eighty-four species in New Zealand, 

 has only three or four in Fuegia. Only five orchids occur, against fifty-seven recorded 

 from New Zealand. On the other hand, there are several remarkable points of agree- 

 ment. Perhaps the most striking is the presence, almost as far south as Cape Horn, 

 of forests mainly composed of small-leaved beeches [Fagus), exactly as in the south 

 of New Zealand, the species, it is true, being different in the two countries. And 

 on the open mountain-tops, above the level of the beech forest, we find, mixed with 

 northern types, representatives of the genera Colobanthus, Acaena, Azorella, Nertera, 

 Abrotanella, Phyllachne, Astelia, Rostkovia, Gaimardia, and Oreobolus — all charac- 

 teristic of the mountain flora of New Zealand, and all extending as far south as 

 the Auckland Islands. But in this case, too, although the genera are identical, the 

 species are in most instances different. 



The total number of Fuegian plants found in the southern islands of New Zealand 

 is twenty-nine. The following is a list, those with an asterisk prefixed being also 

 natives of the Kerguelen - South Georgia groups of islands : — 



* Ranunculus hiternatus. Smith. 

 Cardamine glacialis, D.C. 



„ hirsuta, Linn. 



* Colobanthus subulatus, Hook. f. 



* Montia fontana, Linn. 



* Acaena adscendens, Vahl. 



* Tillaea moschata, D.C. 



* Callitriche antarctica, Engelm, 



