THE DISTEIBUTIOX OF AXIMALS 97 



5000 for the Pliilippincs, 4000 fur Java, and the same for 

 additional species of Makiysia proper (Malay Peninsula, 

 Borneo, and Sumatra), and 2000 for Celebes, Ave have a total 

 of 30,000, Avhich, considering that the land area of this region 

 is less than half that of the Ethiopian, shows Avhat is prob- 

 ably a fair approximation to the number of its flowering 

 plants; though I believe it will be below rather than above 

 the actual amount. 



Coming now to the [N'eotropical Region (including all South 

 America and tropical Xorth America), we find our estimate of 

 the birds to be almost double that of either of the other tropical 

 regions. By means of a rough estimate (p. 64) I have arrived 

 at 80,000 species as a not improbable number of the flower- 

 ing plants for the [N^eotropical Region ; and allowing fully for 

 future discoveries in the Malayan Islands and Indo-China, the 

 numbers in the Oriental Region are not likely to much exceed 

 half this number, thus agreeing very well with the proportion- 

 ate numbers of birds in the same regions. 



The Australian Region is of less importance from the 

 point of view we are now considering, because it is not ex- 

 clusively temperate or tropical, but nearly equally divided be- 

 tween the two. It also differs from the Oriental inasmuch 

 as botanists usually claim the flora of the Moluccas and Xew 

 Guinea as being essentially Malayan, and therefore belonging 

 to the Oriental Region. But the flora of Xew Guinea has 

 been stated by Sir Joseph Hooker to be so peculiar as al- 

 most to deserve to form a Sub-region of its own ; and, till 

 recently, the natural order Dipteracese, consisting of lofty 

 forest-trees with very distinctive botanical characters, was 

 supposed to be limited to the Oriental Region, from the 

 Himalayas to Java, Celebes, and the Philippines. They have, 

 however, now been found both in the ^Moluccas and Xew 

 Guinea ; but as westerly winds blow^ for half the year with 

 great steadiness between Celebes and Xew Guinea, it is not 

 difficult to explain their presence in the latter country, as their 

 solid but larire-winc-ed fruits would be easilv drifted for lonff 



