344 Willis.— Further Evidence for Age and Area ; 
Table VII. 
Islands. 
Wides. 
Angiosp. 
Endemic. 
Angiosp. 
All 
36 
74 
20 
4 i 
6 
— 
— 
8 
5 
2 
1 
5 
11 
4 
2 
4 
5 
55 
3 
7 
7 
10 
80 
2 
8 
17 
14 
113 
1 
5 
22 
17 
273 
Total 
60 
125 
7 1 
581 
Rarity (figures 1- 
7) 2.8 
3 -o 
4*3 
5*6 
As in New 
Zealand 
the endemics 
are a good deal 
more common 
(widespread) than the corresponding Angiosperms, but the wides are not, 
and again I would suggest that this fact .is due to comparatively recent 
arrival of a good many forms by transport of the spores through the air. 
Just as in New Zealand, too, there are fewer endemic Ferns in propor- 
tion to the wides ; they are 71 to 60 against 581 to 125 ; and many more 
in proportion reach all the islands (more than J against 1/14). 
It is evident that the facts of the Hawaiian fern flora agree with those 
of New Zealand, and go to support my hypothesis of age and area. 
It is thus evident that the law of age and area is very general, if not 
universal, in its applicability. The Orchids of Jamaica show its operation 
as clearly as did the floras of Ceylon and New Zealand. The distribution 
of the flora of the Hawaiian islands agrees with it ; that of Callitris in 
Australia shows that it probably applies to Coniferae, and that of the Ferns 
of New Zealand and Hawaii that the Ferns also obey the same law. 
In the Ferns of both countries, there appears a very clear departure 
from the normal trend of the figures, though it is not in a direction to 
encourage those who believe in Natural Selection as governing areal dis- 
tribution, or in the hypothesis that endemics are old species dying out. In 
both cases the endemics, which must on the whole be older than the endemic 
Angiosperms, are much more widespread than the latter, as would be 
expected upon my hypothesis. The wides, however, do not show this ; 
they have only a slightly greater distribution than the angiosperm wides. 
It is evident that this is probably due to the same cause in both cases, and 
I have suggested that it is due to the fact that Ferns may be easily carried 
as spores, and so may continue to arrive up to the most recent times. 
But if we accept the law as thus wide and general in its applicability, 
it is evident that it must have some bearings upon other branches of 
botanical work, and it may be worth while briefly to call attention to some 
of these, in so far as they affect lines in which I have myself worked. 
In systematic botany, for example, the tendency in recent times, as 
