82 Wulfenia Carinthiaca. 



common, but the stamens are 4, and not exserted. The 

 habit of such species as the New Zealand O. macrophylla 

 would be, I should imagine, the same. 



In a Flora like the European, in which are found very 

 large assemblages of certain genera WkQHieracuim.Centaurea, 

 Linaria Raminculus, Saxifraga, and Carex, it is all the more 

 interesting to note a few isolated types which have just put 

 in an appearance, as it were, and only just impinge upon 

 the Flora. 



How the Wulfenia first became established near 

 Hermagor we cannot divine, but it is evidently of Eastern 

 origin. The Dioscorea, to which we have already alluded, 

 is even more interesting as being a member of a subtropical 

 genus, not otherwise known in Europe except in one 

 Pyrenaean station, and the Ramondia Pyrenaica, Lam., with 

 its two allies Haberlea Rhodopenszs, Frivaldsky, and Jankcea 

 Heldreichii) Boissier, of the natural order Cyrtandrcv, a section 

 of GesneracecB, otherwise tropical or subtropical, are parallel 

 instances of localization. These three are found, one in the 

 E. Pyrenees only, the next in the Balkan Mountains, Thrace, 

 and the third, and rarest, on the Thessalian Olympus. 



Other instances might be adduced : all one can do is to 

 note the facts, and attempt to draw conclusions. The 

 question of the geographical distribution of plants is most 

 fascinating, and some of the data are quite without the 

 possibility of solution. Our own islands afford plenty of 

 material ; many of our rarest plants are confined to one spot, 

 and two, Spirantheus Romanzoffiana {gemmipara, Linn.) and 

 Eriocaulon septangulare^ L., natives also of the Neartic 

 region, are unknown in Europe excepting in Ireland, and as 

 regards the latter the I. of Skye, in addition. 



