The Origin of the Native Flora of Polynesia 1 
Edwin Bingham Copeland 2 
My invitation to this symposium states that 
"It is desirable that a man should report on 
his own research, but no speaker should feel 
confined to this range. What we want is an 
evaluation of recent research in each field as 
it has come from or applies to the Pacific Basin, 
and then the speaker’s own estimate of whither 
this may be leading.” 
My own research has been restricted to the 
ferns. If the Philippines be within the field of 
interest, this research has covered a period of 
44 years. Twenty years ago, on the invitation 
of the Bishop Museum, I prepared and pub¬ 
lished in their bulletin series a fern flora of 
Fiji. A few years later, I did the same for the 
Society Islands. Comparing these two groups 
of islands, it was evident that their ferns had 
migrated eastward. Their common ferns are 
mostly common farther west, even as far away 
as Malaya, and their endemics are derived from 
these common, wide-ranging species. 
The conclusion that the ferns of Polynesia 
were immigrants from the Malay region was at 
that time almost inevitable. It is old and reason¬ 
able dogma that evolution, in a large way, takes 
place on continents, and that islands draw thence 
their population. So, Asia, which used to in¬ 
clude the Sunda Islands, seemed the natural 
source of the flora of the neighboring islands 
to the East—Celebes, and then New Guinea, 
and thence the Solomons, and Polynesia, and 
New Caledonia, and New Zealand. 
This interpretation of nature was supported 
by a mental aberration: The flora of Java was 
1 Read by invitation to the Pacific Section, A.A.A.S., 
at San Diego, June 17, 1947. 
2 Research associate in botany, University of Cali¬ 
fornia, Berkeley, California. Manuscript received 
April 22, 1948. 
the first in this part of the world to be well 
known, and when we found in the Philippines 
a plant already known in Java, we simply 
assumed Javan origin. We used to speculate 
on the route of immigration, and to be surprised 
that this route seemed to be by Celebes oftener 
than by Borneo. 
There were items which ought to have dis¬ 
turbed our confidence. For instance, a con¬ 
siderable number of species in the highland of 
Northern Luzon are common to China and 
even to the Himalayas. On the map, this looks 
like the beginning of a route from the continent 
to Polynesia; and men have migrated eastward 
from the Philippines. But not one of the plants 
in question reaches even to Southern Luzon. 
My eyes were opened when, beginning some 
sixteen years ago, I made a monographic study 
of the family Hymenophyllaceae, the filmy ferns. 
Contrary to anticipation, or even suspicion, 
this study led me unescapably to the conclusion 
that this family is entirely of Antarctic origin. 
I abstain from presenting the detailed evidence 
for this conclusion, because it has already been 
digested and published (Copeland, 1938). It 
is as positive as it will be when illustrated by 
fossil evidence—of which the first item, from 
the island Chiloe, reached me in May of this 
year. 
The Antarctic origin of Hymenophyllaceae 
being positively established, it struck me that 
it would be very strange if some or many other 
ferns did not have a similar history. This was 
already recognized for a few genera and species, 
which were regarded as remarkable in this 
respect. A comprehensive study of distribution 
showed me at once that these were not in 
reality exceptional cases, but were the con- 
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