[On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin]@TWC D-Link book
On the Origin of Species

CHAPTER XII
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Still more striking is the fact that peculiar Australian forms are represented by certain plants growing on the summits of the mountains of Borneo.

Some of these Australian forms, as I hear from Dr.Hooker, extend along the heights of the peninsula of Malacca, and are thinly scattered on the one hand over India, and on the other hand as far north as Japan.
On the southern mountains of Australia, Dr.F.Muller has discovered several European species; other species, not introduced by man, occur on the lowlands; and a long list can be given, as I am informed by Dr.Hooker, of European genera, found in Australia, but not in the intermediate torrid regions.

In the admirable "Introduction to the Flora of New Zealand," by Dr.Hooker, analogous and striking facts are given in regard to the plants of that large island.

Hence, we see that certain plants growing on the more lofty mountains of the tropics in all parts of the world, and on the temperate plains of the north and south, are either the same species or varieties of the same species.

It should, however, be observed that these plants are not strictly arctic forms; for, as Mr.H.C.Watson has remarked, "in receding from polar toward equatorial latitudes, the Alpine or mountain flora really become less and less Arctic." Besides these identical and closely allied forms, many species inhabiting the same widely sundered areas, belong to genera not now found in the intermediate tropical lowlands.
These brief remarks apply to plants alone; but some few analogous facts could be given in regard to terrestrial animals.


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