DISTRIBUTION OF SPHAGNUM AND CAREX 351 



Comparison of the Sphagnum and Carex Floras of Australia 

 and New Zealand. — These remarks on the combined Australian 

 and New Zealand region may be supplemented by a reference to 

 the separate Sphagnum and Carex floras of the two subregions, as 

 exemplified in the table before given. As respects Sphagnum, 

 Australia and New Zealand when contrasted present much the same 

 degree of endemism. With Carex, however, the New Zealand 

 endemism is much more pronounced. As might be expected, the 

 Asiatic connections of the Australian Carices are more evident than 

 in the case of those of New Zealand; whilst the South American 

 connections are more apparent in New Zealand. But it will be 

 brought out below that these South American relations, as indicated 

 in the table, cannot be taken at their face- value, either for Australia 

 or New Zealand. 



The Asiatic Connections of the New Zealand Carices. — 

 Of the ten New Zealand species displaying Asiatic connections, seven 

 are also known from Australia, viz. C. pyrenaica, stellulata, gaudi- 

 chaudiana, breviculmis, brownii, pseudocyperus, and pumila. Three 

 of these, the first, second, and sixth, are wide-ranging North American 

 and Eurasian species. The others are purely Asiatic, except the 

 last (C. pumila), which, though spread over Eastern Asia from 

 Manchuria to Hongkong, occurs sporadically in the New World in 

 Chile. It is discussed on p. 339. One of the most interesting of 

 these seven Carices is C. breviculmis. It is the only one of them that 

 breaks its journey from South-eastern Asia to Australia by halting, 

 as already observed, on Mount Scratchley in New Guinea at an 

 altitude of 12,200 feet above the sea. 



Of the three Asiatic New Zealand species which have not yet been 

 found in Australia, Carex diandra, C. lagopina, and C. cederi, the last 

 named is recorded from Tasmania; and it seems not unlikely that 

 one or more of them will be discovered in the highlands of Eastern 

 Australia. All of them seem to pass from Southern Asia to Australia 

 without halting in the Malayan region; but one may expect that 

 some future explorer of the peaks of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo 

 will aid in filling up this gap. Of the three, perhaps C. lagopina 

 is the most interesting. This Arctic and Alpine species of North 

 America and Eurasia is a characteristic sedge of the Southern Alps 

 of New Zealand. The nearest Asiatic locality from which it has 

 been recorded lies in the Khasia Hills of Assam. No question of a 

 South American origin arises, since New Zealand exhibits its only 

 known habitat in the southern hemisphere. Carex diandra has a 

 similar distribution in the northern hemisphere; but it does not 

 occur in such high latitudes. It exists in both the North and South 

 Islands of New Zealand ; but there are great gaps separating it from 

 the Eastern Himalayas and Japan, its nearest recorded habitats. 

 Carex wderi is another North American and Eurasian species, which, 

 however, as already noticed, has a special variety (var. cataracta?) 

 peculiar to New Zealand, Tasmania, South Africa, and extra-tropical 

 South America. The wide gaps separating New Zealand from the 

 nearest Asiatic habitats of the parent species in Kashmir and Japan 

 seem at first sight to point to a derivation across the Southern Ocean, 



