218 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
Somewhat as pictured above may have been the history of the 
New Zealand flora up to the coming of the white man, for the © 
aborigines would affect but slightly either the flora or the vegeta- 
tion. How great the influence of European settlement has been is 
told with some detail in Chapter [X, where it stands forth plainly 
that a new flora and a new vegetation are in the making. Thanks, 
however, to the wisdom of our statesmen, as already shown, many 
havens of refuge have been provided for the fast-vanishing vegeta- 
tion, where, too, almost all the species of the flora—one of the 
most interesting in the world—can remain secure. But is such 
security assured ? Once again must it be urged that the people of 
New Zealand, to whom these sanctuaries belong, keep them inviolate 
—true sanctuaries indeed, where, if free from molestation, can rest 
secure the Palaeozelandic plants, together with their kindred from 
lands far-distant who after years of wanderings reached these happy 
isles. 
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