G.F. Guala
Over the past two centuries Biogeography has evolved along with
other sciences from the descriptive age into the age of hypothesis testing.
Your book gives an excellent example by Cain (1944) of some hypotheses
that were not generally tested but were used as criteria for description.
They represent some of the "rules" that biogeographers have traditionally
and somewhat niavely followed over the years.
The examples all relate to the "Centers of Origin" question that was once central in Biogeography.
Now that we know that habitats move (habitat plates), the center of origin for any group is a moving target and cannot really provide the kind of spatial predictive answers that were once thought possible.
A widely used example
Hennig's Progression Rule
(Primitive forms at the base of the tree and the center of origin)
Wen Paper
An early fully integrated (and flawed) system
Croizat's Panbiogeography
Tracks, Generalized Tracks and ancient connections (often Land Bridges).
Time scale issues and assumptions of non-existent, static (only endemics),
or linear evolution and static continents.
Lack of long distance dispersal