The Antarctic 
cently been examined by M. Chardot.? Twelve out of the 
forty-six species are cosmopolitan plants, but some of 
them are again allied to north temperate or arctic mosses, 
But it is certain flowering plants of South America 
and New Zealand that have raised the most intricate 
and difficult questions. 
The general plant world of South America is quite 
different from that of Australia and New Zealand. It 
is supposed to be descended from a very ancient 
flora which inhabited Brazil and Guiana. There are 
also descendants of Californian plants which came into 
South America by way of the Andes. 
But in Southern Chile and Fuegia there are quite a 
large number which are obviously allied to Australasian 
or especially New Zealand species. 
The resemblances are far too many to be purely 
accidental, for one finds, for instance, woods in which 
the characteristic and master-plants are beeches which 
belong to the characteristic type of New Zealand, not 
to the northern type of beech. 
One little mountain plant, Azorella, is specially inter- 
esting. It is found in many of the dry cold mountain 
deserts of the Andes of Northern Chile and North 
Argentina at 4500 to 5500 metres (17,000 to 21,000 
feet) altitude, where it is the characteristic plant of a 
special association.’ 
Azorella madreporica has an extraordinary appear- 
ance, looking very much like a small hummock of the 
coral from which it takes its name. Its little closely 
packed twigs form so hard and solid a mass that if one 
fires a revolver at them the ball glances off, being quite 
unable to penetrate it. Its compressed crowded growth 
is due to the many short hard twigs which are packed 
together by the dead leaves and dust between them.* 
Such a habit is very characteristic of New Zealand 
alpine plants, and is a very important help to the plant 
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