238 TROPICAL NATUHE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 



tabulating tlie colours of the plants given by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker^ as permanently Arctic, we find among fifty 

 species with more or less conspicuous flowers, twenty-five 

 white, twelve yellow, eight purple or blue, three lilac, 

 and two red or pink ; showing a very similar proportion 

 of white and yellow flowers to what obtains further 

 south. 



We have, however, a remarkable flora in the Southern 

 Hemisphere which aflbrds a crucial test of the theory 

 of greater intensity of light being the direct cause 

 of brilliantly coloured flowers. The Auckland and 

 Campbell's Islands south of New Zealand, are in the 

 same latitude as the middle and the south of England, 

 and the summer days are therefore no longer than with 

 us. The climate though cold is very uniform, and the 

 weather very rainy and stormy." It is evident, then, 

 that there can be no excess of sunshine above what 

 we possess ; yet in a very limited flora there are a 

 number of flowers which — Sir Joseph Hooker states — 

 are equal in brilliancy to the Arctic flora. These con- 

 sist of brilliant gentians, handsome veronicas, large 

 and magnificent Compositse with purple flowers, bright 

 ranunculi, showy Umbelliferse, and the golden flowered 

 Chrysohactron Rossii, one of the finest of the Aspho- 

 delese.^ All these fine plants, it must be remembered, 

 are peculiar to these islands, and have therefore been 

 developed under the climatal conditions that prevail 

 there ; and as we have no reason to suppose that these 

 conditions have undergone any recent change we may be 



1 " On the Distribution of Arctic Plants," Linn. Trans, vol. xxiii. (1862.) 

 ^ Coloured figures of all these plants are given in the Flora Antarctica^ 

 vol. i. 



