THE ANNALS 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 



No. 86. FEBRUARY 1885. 



IX. — The Origin of the Fauna and Flora of New Zealand. 

 By Capt. F. W. Hutton, F.G'.S.* 



II. The Antarctic and North-Temperate Elements^ 



In my address last year I pointed out that the immigrant 

 part of our fauna and flora could be divided into five elements, 

 viz.: — '(1) Australian, (2) Polynesian, (3) South American, 

 (4) Antarctic, and (5) North-Temperate. I explained that 

 of these elements the first three had invaded New Zealand 

 together from the north at three different epochs. The first 

 invasion was in the Lower Cretaceous, when New Zealand 

 formed part of a large South-Pacific continent %•> extending 

 from New Guinea to Chili. The second was in the Eocene 

 period, the third in the Pliocene, during both of which times 

 New Zealand was an island, although considerably larger 



* From advance sheets communicated by the Author from the * New- 

 Zealand Journal of Science,' vol. ii. p. 249. 



t Annual Address to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, de- 

 livered 6th November, 1884. For Part I. see Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 ser. 5, vol. xiii. p. 425. 



X M. A. Milne-Edwards appears to have advocated in 1874 the hypo- 

 thesis that New Zealand bad formerly been joined to some islands of 

 Polynesia, while it remained separated from Australia. I have not seen 

 his paper. (See N. Z. Journ. Sc. i. p. 258, footnote.) 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. xv. 7 



