Mueller. — On the Ancient Connections of N.Z. 433 



must have originated somewhere. With such explanations, 

 one wanders without knowing it in a circle, if one does not 

 wish to arrive at the absurd conclusion that the creation of 

 organisms was possible on one globe only. It is the same 

 with migrations. I do not deny them when they are oppor- 

 tune, and I know very well that wind and weather, animals 

 and men, are able to distribute species sometimes over large 

 areas ; but it is quite a different thing when we have to deal 

 with the spreading of whole floras, sufficient to impress one 

 district with the stamp of another, where all the species 

 are united in an organic association, so that one cannot 

 be understood without the other. This cannot ever 

 have been accomplished by a migration of a mechanical 

 nature. 



Sufficient attention has not hitberto been paid to isolated 

 types standing apart in floras. Examples are numerous, but 

 I will mention only one of the genus of mosses — Drammondia. 

 Its history is much the same as that of Adansonia. Originally 

 it was discovered in North America as D. clavatella ; afterwards 

 I pointed out a second species — I), obtusifolia— in Chili ; and 

 finally the English traveller T. Thomson discovered a third 

 species — D. thomsonii — in Thibet, on the heights of the Hima- 

 laya. How comes such a characteristic ground-form of the 

 United States upon the Cordillera of Chili and upon the icy 

 heights of central Asia ? The answer is, Because the con- 

 ditions of creation at all these three places on the earth 

 produced it as the sequence of given circumstances. Any 

 other answer is unscientific. Chemico-physical agencies pro- 

 duced it. Under this head it is possible to think of something, 

 but any other explanation is unthinkable. But one can turn 

 the spear if one fixes the eyes upon Australia. There, of 

 course, the Australian types dominate in such large numbers 

 that they give to the flora the characters of a former age. 

 To the earlier German botanists, such as Dr. Behr, of Anhalt, 

 it appeared remarkable that there are districts on the Aus- 

 tralian Continent where, to the surprise of the observer, Euro- 

 pean forms were found at a time when no considerable 

 immigration had taken place. But even if the immigration 

 had been large it would not have mattered much, for, al- 

 though the genera were European, the species were spon- 

 taneous. Whence did they come to Australia? Answer, 

 From no other place than Australia itself, for they are not 

 known in Europe. Even Africa has a claim to similarity like 

 Europe. In South Australia a fern occurs with a considerable 

 development of the stem — a species of the genus Todea. Only 

 one species was known from South Africa (T. africana), which 

 so closely resembles the Australian species that for some time 

 they were thought to be identical ; but their specific difference 

 28 



