28o A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



Hawaiian species show a great range in altitude. Thus, whilst S. 

 struthioloides finds its home in Hawaii and Maui at elevations of 

 5,000 to 9,000 feet, another species (S. lanceolata) thrives equally 

 at elevations of 5,000 or 6,000 feet on the central plateau of 

 Hawaii and at heights only of 300 to 500 feet above the sea. 

 Although I have not yet come upon any direct reference to the 

 mode of dispersal of the small seeds of this genus, there is little 

 doubt that their rough tuberculated surfaces would favour their 

 attachment to plumage. A very significant observation, however, 

 is made by Jens Holmboe in a paper on littoral plants in the 

 interior of Norway. He refers to the occurrence in no small 

 quantity of Silene maritima on the top of " Linnekleppen," 331 

 metres high, one of the highest peaks of Smaalenene, and distant 

 about 29 kilometres from the nearest coast {Strandplanter i det 

 indre af Norge, " Naturen," Bergen, 1899). Sernander (p. 405), 

 commenting on this observation, remarks that since bare hill-tops 

 are frequented by birds, such an agency in this instance is not 

 impossible. 



I will conclude these remarks on the non-endemic Hawaiian 

 mountain genera possessing only peculiar species, with a few 

 observations on the genus Vaccinium in the Pacific. This genus 

 is known to be distributed over the northern hemisphere and to 

 occur on the uplands of tropical mountains, as, for instance, on the 

 summits of the Java mountains and on the high levels of the 

 Equatorial Andes at altitudes even of 15,000 to 16,000 feet. There 

 are apparently only some four or five species known from the 

 Pacific islands, from Hawaii, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Rarotonga, 

 Samoa, and the New Hebrides, and it would almost seem that 

 these can be reduced to one or two species. Although not yet 

 recorded from Fiji, the probability of the genus being represented 

 on some of the mountains is pointed out by Seemann. Of these 

 Pacific forms a single species, V. cereum, is spread over the East 

 Polynesian region including the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Rarotonga ; 

 and, according to Hillebrand, V. reticulatum, one of the two 

 endemic Hawaiian species, is nearly related to it. Even the New 

 Hebrides species (V. macgillivrayi) resembles it, according to 

 Seemann, in general appearance. That there has been a single 

 Pacific polymorphous species is, as shown below, not impossible ; 

 but Reinecke, in describing in 1898 the Samoan species, V. anti- 

 podum, was under the impression that it was the only species 

 known from the southern hemisphere, and says nothing of its 

 affinity to other Pacific plants. 



