THE SOUTH TEMPERATE ZONE 349 



Compared with Australia, New Zealand has few showy flowers, a 

 remarkable number of the plants having white or greenish flowers. 

 There is, however, a considerable number of marked exceptions 



to this, like the scarlet flowers of the rata and native flax; the bright 

 yellow of Sophora tetraptera, and the showy blue or purple of many 

 species of Veronica and various Compositae, like Celmisia. 



When the floras of New Zealand and Australia arc compared, 

 there are fewer correspondences than might be anticipated, and 

 these are largely of northern genera which are also common to the 

 Malayan flora. The Malayan element, however, is relatively 

 of much greater importance in New Zealand, where in spite of the 

 much cooler climate, a large proportion of the trees and shrub- 

 are more or less evidently related to Malayan types. There is 

 very strong evidence of former land extensions to the north of 

 New Zealand, and it is quite likely that the Malayan genera which 

 New Zealand shares with Australia, have reached the former 

 country quite independently. 



The distinctly Australian genera are relatively few in New 

 Zealand, some of the most important like Eucalyptus, Acacia and 

 Grevillea, being totally absent. The myrtle family, with over 

 800 species in Australia has a scant 20 in New Zealand, and the 

 Proteaceae, with approximately 650 in Australia, have but two 

 species in New Zealand. The characteristic Australian family 

 Epacridaceae is well represented in New Zealand, as well as sev- 

 eral Australian genera of Orchidaceae, Leguminosae and Composi- 

 tae; but it has been suggested that some of these may have origi- 

 nated in New Zealand, and later migrated to Australia. 



The Sub-antarctic Flora 



Reference has already been made to the presence in southeast 

 Australia and Tasmania of certain plants which are evidently 

 related to species found in sub-antarctic South America. This 

 "Fuegian" flora is much more evident in New Zealand, and has 

 been the subject of many careful investigations. In one of the 

 more recent of these publications 1 it is stated that 47 families 



1 Seottsburg, K., "Notes on the Relation between the Floras of Sub-antarctio 

 South America and New Zealand," Plant World, May. 1915. 



Cockayne, L., New Zealand Plants and Their Story, Wellington, 1919. 



