vi 



PREFACE 



islands were rich in distribution-problems almost as fascinating as 

 those presented by Hawaii and other Polynesian groups. 



Yet but few of these problems were directly indicated in the 

 catalogues of the floras accessible to me ; and I realised here, as I 

 did in the Pacific, that the work of the systematist in framing a 

 catalogue of a flora represents the means to an end and not the 

 end itself. In other words, with a list of a flora in our hands we 

 stand only at the threshold of the study of distribution. Here 

 also I realised that there is no region so well known that it would 

 not greatly benefit by a thorough overhaul of all the data from a 

 generally accepted standpoint of distribution; and the conviction 

 forced itself upon me that the student of distribution will find his 

 task nearest-at-hand, not in the discovery of new facts, but in the 

 elaboration of old ones, and in the adoption of a uniform method 

 of treatment. The elimination of the introduced plant should be 

 the first goal of the student of distribution. Yet it is not possible 

 for him to procure intelligible results, since he employs one method 

 for the British Islands, another for the Azores, another for New 

 Zealand, and a fourth for the Hawaiian Islands. The story of the 

 weed all over the globe is full of significance, but only for the student 

 of the early history of man. 



H. B. Guppy. 



"Bosario" Salcombe, 

 South Devon. 



Nov. 23, 1916. 



