352 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



a view supported by the distribution of the special variety above 

 mentioned ; but this subject is further noticed in the next paragraph. 



The South American Connections of New Zealand and 

 Australian Carices. — With regard to the apparently greater con- 

 nection with South America which is displayed by the New Zealand 

 Carices as contrasted with those of Australia, there is this to be said. 

 Of the five New Zealand species concerned, two, C. pseudocyperus 

 and C. pumila, are Queensland plants, which are found, the first in 

 Kashmir and the second in South China, so that it is scarcely requisite 

 to look to the southern part of South America for their source. Of 

 the other three species, C. darwinii, trifida, and cederi, it has already 

 been said that the question of derivation from South America is 

 only imminent with respect to the first two, since they are found 

 nowhere else than in the New Zealand region and in the southern 

 part of South America. Whilst with C. trifida the evidence is in- 

 decisive, the probability is that the Chatham Islands received C. 

 darwinii from Fuegia. The special variety of C. osderi, which has 

 often been mentioned as occurring in New Zealand, South Africa, 

 and southern South America, lends support at first sight to the 

 trans-oceanic hypothesis; but it is shown that if put at all the 

 question should be narrowed down to the issue whether New Zealand 

 or South America is its original home, and preference is given to the 

 view that each of these regions derived the parent form from the 

 northern hemisphere, a corresponding varietal modification subse- 

 quently taking place in each region. 



However, to be on the side of safety we will assume that two of 

 the fifteen New Zealand species which are found outside that region 

 could have been derived from Fuegia. It is different with the three 

 species (C. canescens, pseudocyperus, and pumila) that apparently 

 connect Australia with southern South America. It has above been 

 shown that the two last named probably reached Queensland from 

 Asia. As respecting C. canescens, the direct South American con- 

 nection is also excluded. It has been found in the mountains of 

 South-eastern Australia, though not in New Zealand. Like C. lago- 

 pina it is an Arctic and an Alpine species of the northern hemisphere, 

 both in America and Eurasia. Just as Fuegia received it from the 

 north by the way of the Chilian and Argentine Andes, so Australia 

 has received it either from Japan, or from the highlands of Kashmir, 

 where it has been found at an altitude of 12,000 feet. Looking 

 at all the facts concerned with the streaming of Carices to Australia 

 from Asia, it would be hazardous to assume that the mountains of 

 New South Wales and Victoria received Carex canescens across the 

 breadth of the South Pacific Ocean. On the whole, we may infer 

 that whilst New Zealand has derived two of its Carices from South 

 America, Australia has received none. 



Similar Role of a Sphagnal Subsection in the Australian 

 and New Zealand Region and in Africa. — A supplementary 

 remark may here be made on a curious point of resemblance between 

 Africa and the Australian and New Zealand region. It has already 

 been noticed in the case of the African species of Sphagnum that the 

 isolation of the continent is to be associated with the fact that the 



