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and only 2,200 from tropical Australia, where 
the endemic species are fewest in number. 
Now what is the reason for this distribution? 
Is it because Malaysia has exerted less of an 
influence upon these southwestern districts 
because they are so distant, and because they 
are separated from the interior — and there- 
fore from the northern shores and Malaysia — 
by vast deserts? Is this pronounced isolation 
the reason why more endemic species have 
developed and have been preserved in the 
southern periphery of Australia than in its 
other parts? Or is there a more general rule, 
as yet unexplained, that endemics are devel- 
oped more generously in southern lands? 
If we compare South Africa with Australia, 
we can count an enormous number of en- 
demics in Cape Colony; and if we compare 
the most southern parts of South America — 
Patagonia and Chile — with Australia, we can 
find there, too, a great number of endemic 
species — 1,200 of 1,600 species, according to 
Grisebach’s early evaluation in his Die Vege- 
tation der Erde (1872: II, 498). 
It is not possible to indicate a preponder- 
ance of endemisms in the most southern part 
of India, at least on the basis of the figures 
reported by Hooker and Thomson in their 
Introduction to the Flora Indica ( 1855 ) . 
Newer statistics concerning Indian endemisms 
apparently are not yet published. 
In Europe, however, the majority of en- 
demics is found in the southern areas, partic- 
ularly in the Balkans and in Crete (Turrill, 
1929). In this connection, Newbigin (1936) 
has made these statements about mammals: 
"It has been made abundantly clear that the 
great migratory movements have been from 
the wide land masses of the northern hemis- 
phere towards the narrower and discontin- 
uous southern ones, and that extinction of 
early stocks has been most marked in the 
Holarctic region, while the survival of mem- 
bers of these is especially characteristic of 
some of the southern lands. . . . The past and 
present distribution of the higher plants con- 
firms the conclusions derived from the study 
of mammals. Sometimes the correspondence 
is curiously exact.” Unfortunately, Newbigin 
does not give his proofs of these lapidary 
sentences, particularly for the plants. Let us, 
therefore, find our own proofs in some ex- 
amples from the pertinent literature. 
A good many of the flowering plants, as, 
for example, the families of the Papaveraceae 
and the Geraniaceae, have migrated along 
the ridges of the Andes, from both North 
America and Central America, far into South 
America (Vester, 1940: 162, fig. 78). The 
genus Kibes, which also migrated in this man- 
ner, has been cited for this fact by Newbigin 
(1936). The same evidence of migration 
appears to be provided for some of the 
Primulaceae, with Primula farinosa in the 
Holarctic region and in Andean Patagonia 
(Vester, 1940: 154, fig. 40); for the Betu- 
laceae {ibid., 163, fig. 80); for the Empe- 
traceae {ibid., 163, fig. 81); for the Oroban- 
chaceae {ibid., 1 64, fig. 86); and for the 
Juglandaceae {ibid., 176, fig. 153). 
Fossil discoveries give further evidence 
that, to a great extent, some of the plant 
groups were forced out of northern areas into 
southern not only by diluvial glaciers, which, 
coming from the north, destroyed the Ceno- 
zoic flora of central Europe and of central 
North America, but also by hitherto un- 
known factors which were effective much 
farther southward. The Magnoliaceae, for 
instance, at one time must have grown over 
vast parts of the Holarctic region, but today 
they are limited to South and Central Amer- 
ica, eastern and southeastern North America, 
the West Indies, southwestern Asia, Malaysia, 
eastern Australia, and New Zealand (Vester, 
1940: 188, fig. 262). The Juglandaceae, too, 
have disappeared from large areas of north- 
western North America, from Europe (except 
for the Balkans ) , and from central Asia ( ex- 
cept for the Caucasus), while in the more 
southern regions they continue to survive. 
Further examples are to be found in the fam- 
