of Australia.'] INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. ciii 



light as the European, and as a mere fragment of a much more extensive one, whose other members 

 perished in the battle for place waged with the European and Australian during those changes of 

 climate and level that succeeded their first introduction. The ultimate numerical ascendency of the 

 Australian botanical element may have been gained during the subsequent partition of the continent 

 into archipelagos of islands, which became so many colonies of Australian types of vegetation, pre- 

 pared on the final rise of the land to descend and occupy the intermediate ground. The paucity 

 of alpine plants of Australian genera is a fact which lends itself well to this idea ; it implies that, 

 during either the rise of land or increase of temperature, the tendency of the species of Australian 

 type was to seek warmer regions, and that the boreal and antarctic types being better suited to 

 a colder climate prevented to a great extent the establishment of such varieties of Australian type 

 as might otherwise have been adapted to inhabit the same climate as themselves. 



When I take a comprehensive view of the vegetation of the Old World, I am struck with the ap- 

 pearance it presents of there being a continuous current of vegetation (if I may so fancifully express 

 myself) from Scandinavia to Tasmania ; along, in short, the whole extent of that arc of the terrestrial 

 sphere which presents the greatest continuity of land. In the first place, Scandinavian genera, and 

 even species, reappear everywhere from Lapland and Iceland to the tops of the Tasmanian alps, in 

 rapidly diminishing numbers it is true, but in vigorous development throughout. They abound on 

 the Alps and Pyrenees, pass on to the Caucasus and Himalaya, thence they extend along the Khasia 

 mountains, and those of the peninsulas of India to those of Ceylon and the Malayan archipelago 

 (Java and Borneo), and after a hiatus of 30°, they appear on the alps of New South Wales, 

 Victoria, and Tasmania, and beyond these again on those of New Zealand and the Antarctic Islands, 

 many of the species remaining unchanged throughout ! It matters not what the vegetation of the 

 bases and flanks of these mountains maybe; the northern species maybe associated with alpine 

 forms of Germanic, Siberian, Oriental, Chinese, American, Malayan, and finally Australian and 

 Antarctic types ; but whereas these are all, more or less, local assemblages, the Scandinavian asserts 

 his prerogative of ubiquity from Britain to beyond its antipodes. 



Next in importance and appearance along the arc indicated is that Flora which may be called 

 Himalayan,* and which consists of the endemic plants of that range, with a mixture of Siberian, 

 Caucasian, and Chinese genera; this, gathering strength in its progress south-eastward along the 

 ranges of northern and eastern India, occupies the flanks of all the mountain-chains I have enume- 

 rated between the Caucasus and Malay Islands ; but there the Himalayan Flora disappears, and does 

 not reappear in Australia or New Zealand, and scarcely a trace of it is found in Polynesia. 



The Malayan Floraf is in many respects closely allied to the Himalayan, but is wholly tropical 

 in character. This also very gradually appears in the valleys of the western and central Himalaya, 

 and multiplying in genera and species in the eastern Himalaya and Khasia ranges, it sweeps down 

 the Malayan peninsula, occupies all the Malayan Islands, and then it too stops short without entering 

 Australia, being, however, continued eastward in tropical Polynesia. 



Lastly, there is the Flora of the plains and lower hills of India, % which is of a drier character 

 than the Malayan, and is equally characteristic of Africa. This commences gradually in north-west 

 India, or even in eastern Persia, and occupies all central India, the Gangetic plain, the whole of the 



* Characterized by Cupulifem, Magnoliacees, Temstrcemiacea, Laurinea, Bahaminea, Ericecr, Fumariace/s, etc. 

 f Vaccinece, Rhododendron, Begoniacece, Quercus .- and equally typified by Cyrtandracecs, Bijpterocarjpea:, Myris- 

 ticecs, Anonacece, Menispermece. 



% It consists of Aeanlhacea, Stercullacea, and other Orders, enumerated at p. xlii. et seq. 



t 2 



