478 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part it. 



or Antarctic plants and many more which are representative 

 species, are found also in Tasmariia and in the mountains of 

 temperate Australia; and Sir Joseph Hooker gives a list of 

 thirty-eight species very characteristic of Europe and Northern 

 Asia, but almost or quite unknown in the warmer regions, which 

 yet reappear in temperate Australia. Other genera seem 

 altogether Antarctic — that is, confined to the extreme southern 

 lands and islands ; and these often have representative species 

 in Southern America, Tasmania, and New Zealand, while others 

 occur only in one or two of these areas. Many north temperate 

 genera also occur in the mountains of South Africa. On the 

 other hand, few if any of the peculiar Australian or Antarctic 

 types have spread northwards, except some of the former which 

 have reached the mountains of Borneo, and a few of the latter 

 which spread along the Andes to Mexico. 



On these remarkable facts, of which I have given but the 

 barest outline, Sir Joseph Hooker makes the following suggestive 

 observations : — 



" When I take a comprehensive view of the vegetation of the 

 Old World, I am struck with the appearance it presents of there 

 being a continuous current of vegetation (if I may so fancifully 

 express myself) from Scandinavia to Tasmania ; along, in short, 

 the whole extent of that arc of the terrestrial sphere which 

 presents the greatest continuity of land. In the first place 

 Scandinavian genera, and even species, reappear everywhere from 

 Lapland and Iceland to the tops of the Tasmanian Alps, in 

 rapidly diminishing numbers it is true, but in vigorous develop- 

 ment throughout. They abound on the Alps and Pyrenees, pass 

 on to the Caucasus and Himalaya, thence they extend along the 

 Khasia Mountains, and those of the peninsulas of India to 

 those of Ceylon and the Malayan Archipelago (Java and 

 Borneo), and after a hiatus of 30° they appear on the Alps 

 of New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, and beyond 

 these again on those of New Zealand and the Antarctic 

 Islands, many of the species remaining unchanged through- 

 out ! It matters not what the vegetation of the bases and 

 flanks of these mountains may be ; the northern species may 

 be associated wdth alpine forms of Germanic, Siberian, Oriental, 



