THE VASCULAR FLORA OF MACQUARIE ISLAND.—CHEESEMAN. 
51 
We thus find that even in the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands, separated 
from Fuegia by quite 4,500 miles of trackless ocean, there still exists a Fuegian element 
in the flora. Further inquiry shows that there are twenty-nine species that are found 
in both localities. But as this deals solely with specific identity, it does not fully repre¬ 
sent the affinity between the vegetation of the two countries. I have elsewhere stated 
that out of eighty-eight genera found in the southern islands of New Zealand, no less 
than fifty-six have representatives in Fuegia. 
A few words may now be said on the flora of the southern portion of South 
America, including Fuegia, Falkland Islands, and South America as far north as 
lat. 45°. This area contains a moderately rich flora of certainly not less than 750 
species. I have already pointed out that twenty-nine of these extend to the outlying 
islands of New Zealand, and that fifty-six Fuegian genera have representatives in the 
same locality. Nevertheless, there are important differences between the flora of Fuegia 
and that of New Zealand. Quoting from my previous memoir, the Fuegian flora 
“ contains thirteen families of plants not found in that country, and twice that number 
represented in New Zealand do not occur in Fuegia proper. This alone would give a 
different aspect to the two floras, but there are many other divergences of a marked 
character. For instance, the Composite constitute the largest family in Fuegia, exactly 
as in New Zealand, but the genera are almost altogether different; out of twenty-four 
found in Fuegia, only six occur in New Zealand, not one of them, with the exception of 
Senecio, forming a noteworthy feature in the vegetation. Olearia, Celmisia, Raoulia, 
and Cassinia are all entirely absent. The arborescent Composite, so conspicuous a 
feature in the New Zealand flora, even as far south as the Auckland Islands, are 
unknown in Fuegia. Similarly, the arborescent Rubiacece (Coprosma ), everywhere 
present in the New Zealand area, are conspicuous by their absence in Fuegia. Veronica, 
with its eighty-four species in New Zealand, has only three or four in Fuegia. Only 
five orchids occur, against fifty-seven recorded from New Zealand. On the other hand, 
there are several remarkable points of agreement. Perhaps the most striking is the 
presence, almost as far south as Cape Horn, of forests mainly composed of small leaved 
beeches ( Fagus ) exactly as in the south of New Zealand, the species, it is true, being 
different in the two countries. And on the open mountain tops, above the level of the 
beech forest, we find, mixed with northern types, respresentatives of the genera 
Colobanthus, Accena, Azorella, Nertera, Abrotanella, Phyllachne, Astelia, Rostkovia, 
Gaimardia , and Oreobolus —all characteristic of the mountain flora of New Zealand, 
and all extending as far south as the Auckland Islands. But in this case, although 
the genera are identical, the species are in most cases different.” 
So far in this memoir, whenever plants have been mentioned that are generally 
distributed in the subantarctic zone, they have, as a matter of convenience, been 
treated as of Fuegian origin. In one case, that of Cotula plumosa, which is found in 
Kerguelen, Macquarie Island, and the New Zealand outlying islands, but not in Fuegia, 
I have suggested that it has originated on the New Zealand side of the zone, but has 
