Tasmanian Plants.'] INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. lxxxv 



There is thus a very remarkable rise in the proportion of European forms in Tasmania, and this 

 is not due to the extension of all the European plants of Australia into Tasmania, for there are in 

 the latter island several Europeau genera and species that have not been found on the continent ; as — 



Eanunculus aquatilis. Draba nemoralis. Montia fontana. 



Anemone. Hierochloe borealis. Trisetum subspicatum. 



Thlaspi ? 



On the other hand, the Victoria Alps contain several northern European forms which have not 

 been found in Tasmania, as — 



Turritis glabra. Lysimachia vulgaris. Carex Buxbaumii. 



Sagina procumbens. Alisma Plantago. Carex vulgaris {fid. Mv.ell.) 



Myriophyllum verticillatum. Actinocarpus. Carex eanescens ditto. 



Alchemilla vulgaris. Hydrilla dentata. Carex echinata ditto. 



Samolus Valerandi. Carex stellulata. Carex Pyrenaica. 



The New Zealand Flora is another which enters proportionately much more largely into the 

 Tasmanian than into the Australian, nearly 200 of the genera and 170 of the species of Tasmania 

 being common to New Zealand ; and these countries further contain various representative genera and 

 species, which will be found in the Introductory Essay to the ' New Zealand Flora,' and in the section 

 of tbis Essay devoted to a comparison of the New Zealand and Australian Floras. 



From the higher latitude of Tasmania, and its loftier mountains, it contains further a larger 

 proportion of antarctic plants, nearly 100 genera and 56 species being common to this island and 

 the groups south of New Zealand, Fuegia, the Falkland Islands, etc. 



A strict comparison of the continental Australian and Tasmanian Floras cannot be fully carried 

 out, until much larger suites of specimens from both countries have been selected and compared. 

 It is evident that many of the plants that rank as peculiar to Tasmania, are slightly though per- 

 manently altered forms, no less than 100 of the 1063 being so considered, with more or less certainty 

 or plausibility, by Mueller or Archer or myself, and some by all of us. To enter into a discussion 

 of them here would be quite useless. 



Another interesting subject of detail, requiring fuller materials, is the alpine Flora of Tasmania. 

 upon which Mueller's Victorian Alps collections have thrown so much light. I find, on a rough 

 estimate, that there are 200 alpine and subalpine species in Tasmania (of which half are alpine) ; 

 considering as such those which are most prevalent in or confined to altitudes above 3,000 feet : of 

 these 30 are probably altered forms of lowland plants ; 120 are of Australian genera (10 of them are 

 probably varieties) ; about 10 are of New Zealand genera; 55 are of European genera (17 of them 

 probably varieties) ; and 25 are Antarctic forms. 



This proportion of varieties amongst the alpine and subalpine plants, amounting as it does to 

 15 per cent., is very large; the proportion amongst the lowland plants being considerably under 

 10 per cent. The small proportion of varieties amongst the alpines belonging to Australian genera 

 compared with those of European genera is also worthy of notice, as an exemplification of an 

 observation made by Mr. Darwin, that the species of widely distributed genera are more variable 

 than those of local genera. 



The locality indicated by the letters " Ch." as the habitat of many Tasmanian plants collected 

 by Mr. Archer, consists of a tract of country (in which is included his estate of Cheshunt, about ten 

 miles south-west of Deloraine and 600 feet above the sea), extending southerly from Mount Gog, on 



