29. Cyperus. Australia, Tropical regions mainly.
30. Fimbristylis. Tropical Australia, Tropical regions.
31. Paspalum. Tropical and Sub-tropical grasses.
32. Isachne. Tropical and Sub-tropical grasses.
33. Sporobolus. Tropical and Sub-tropical grasses.
[188] Insects are tolerably abundant in the open mountain regions, but very scarce in the forests. Mr. Meyrick says that these are "strangely deficient in insects, the same species occurring throughout the islands;" and Mr. Pascoe remarked that "the forests of New Zealand were the most barren country, entomologically, he had ever visited." (Proc. Ent. Soc., 1883. p. xxix.)
[189] Introductory Essay On the Flora of Australia, p. 130.
[190] Hooker, On the Flora of Australia, p. 95.—H. C. Watson, in Godman's Azores, pp. 278-286.
[191] As this is a point of great interest in its bearing on the dispersal of plants by means of mountain ranges, I have endeavoured to obtain a few illustrative facts:—
1. Mr. William Mitten, of Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, informs me that when the London and Brighton railway was in progress in his neighbourhood, Melilotus vulgaris made its appearance on the banks, remained for several years, and then altogether disappeared. Another case is that of Diplotaxis muralis, which formerly occurred only near the sea-coast of Sussex, and at Lewes; but since the railway was made has spread along it, and still maintains itself abundantly on the railway banks though rarely found anywhere else.