242 NEW ZEALAND. 



Land Planarian worms are also pretty common near Welling- 

 ton. In their anatomiail structure, these New Zealand species 

 are more nearly allied to South American forms of the genus 

 Geoplana than to the Australian Land Planarians. These latter 

 belong to a special genus, Caiioplniia, which has affinities with 

 the genus Rliyucliodcmiis of India and the Cape of Good 

 Hope.* 



Mr. W. T. Locke Travers, F.L.S., to whom I am indebted 

 for much kindness and scientific information during my stay at 

 Wellington, brought me specimens of Peripatiis N. zealandicc, 

 and also of Land Planarians, together with the egg capsules of 

 the latter, which were hitherto unknown. 



They are spherical in form, of about the size of sweet-pea 

 seeds and of a dark brown colour. The capsules have a tough 

 chitinous wall, and contain four or five young Planarians each. 

 The production of these capsules by the Land Planarians I 

 regard as further evidence in favour of the affinity of these 

 worms to the leeches, on which I have dwelt elsewhere. f 



Off the Kermadec Islands, September 14th, 1874. — We were 

 in the morning in sight of Raoul or Sunday Island, and 

 Macaulay Island, of the Kermadec group. No landing was 

 effected on any of the islands. This small group of islands 

 forms with New Zealand, McQuarrie Island, and the Tonga 

 group, a direct line of volcanic action, stretching about N.E., 

 and thus at right angles nearly to the north-west lines, which 

 are followed by most of the remaining Pacific groups, such as 

 the Fijis, for example. The Kermadec Islands are all very 

 small. The flora of Raoul Island was described by Sir J. D. 

 Hooker % from collections made by Mr. MacGillivray, of 

 H.M.S. "Herald." Forty-two vascular plants are known from 

 the islands, of which five are endemic species. Half of the 

 number consist of New Zealand ferns. The large proportion 

 of ferns in the flora is most remarkable, and also their New 

 Zealand character. There are no currents leading from New 

 Zealand towards the Kermadecs. The group lies in the fork 



* Captain F. W. Hutton informs me that, as far as he knows, the 

 genus Bipalium does not exist in New Zealand. His assertion that it did 

 exist tliere in his well-known and admirable paper, " On the Geographical 

 Relations of the New Zealand Fauna," Trans. New Zealand Inst., Vol. V., 

 1872, p. 227, was due to imperfect determination of the genus in the 

 case of the species of Geoplana of the locality. 



f H. N. Moseley, " On the Anatomy and Histology of the Land 

 Planarians of Ceylon." Phil. Trans. 1875, p. 148. Also "Notes on the 

 Structure of Several Forms of Land Planarians." Quart. Journal, Micro. 

 Sci., Vol. XVII., p. 275. 



:j: Sir ]. D. Hooker, "Botany of Raoul Island." Jour. Linn. .Soc, Bot., 

 Vol. I., 1857, p. 125. 



