348 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



and Carex in the region of Australia and New Zealand, and there are 

 also some instructive differences. The principal features are shown 

 in the table given above. If we first take the combined region we 

 notice that whilst only 7 per cent, (three out of forty-two) of the 

 species of Sphagnum occur in both Australia and New Zealand, with 

 Carex 18 per cent, (eleven out of sixty-one) are recorded from both 

 regions. This would seem to indicate that Sphagnum has yielded 

 more than Carex to the differentiating influences; but the opposite 

 tendency is brought out in the table as respects New Zealand, where 

 Carex would appear to have a slight advantage in this respect. There 

 is little, therefore, to be gained by dwelling on this point. 



In the case of New Zealand it makes no material difference whether 

 we include or omit the islands lying to the east and south (Chatham, 

 Antipodes, Campbell, Auckland, etc.). It should, however, be noted 

 that, as far as is shown in KukenthaPs monograph, these off-lying 

 islands, as a rule, contain no species of Carex which does not exist 

 in New Zealand, the only exception being the Chatham Islands, 

 which alone in this region hold the Fuegian Carex darwinii. These 

 out-lying islands, therefore, are not known to possess any peculiar 

 species of Carex. It is different with Sphagnum, since Antipodes 

 Island and the Chatham Islands hold in each case a peculiar species 

 of the genus. In one or two cases the New Zealand Carices have 

 spread to Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands, thus indicating a tendency 

 to extend to Australia. 



The column that is devoted to Japan in the table is merely in- 

 tended to emphasise the Asiatic connection. It is brought out in 

 the text that both Japan and Australia derive most of the species 

 held in common by them from the Himalayan region. 



The Geographical Connections of the Australian and New 

 Zealand Peat-mosses and Carices. — But the difference between 

 Sphagnum and Carex in the Australian and New Zealand region is 

 only one of degree, since the geographical connections are closely 

 similar. Whilst with Sphagnum all of the eight species found outside 

 the region are Asiatic, seven being European, and seven North 

 American, with Carex eighteen of the twenty-one non-endemic 

 species are Asiatic, eight are European, and eight North American. 

 There is seemingly in both cases a connection between the Peat- 

 mosses and Carices of this region and those of the southern extremity 

 of South America. There is only a very slight connection with South 

 Africa in the case of Carex and none for Sphagnum. For genera so 

 unlike there is, therefore, at first sight a close correspondence between 

 their relations outside the Australian and New Zealand region, a 

 correspondence which is not lessened by an examination of the details. 

 Before discussing the predominant Asiatic connections, a feature 

 common to both genera, I will deal with the South American and 

 South African relations. 



In the first place there is the South American connection, apparent 

 or real. As already shown in the case of Sphagnum, the two 

 Australian and New Zealand species (S. medium, fimbriatum) which 

 occur in Fuegia are widely spread Eurasian and North American 

 species that could have reached their present homes in the south 



