NEW HOLLAND IN EUROPE. 47 
esting to trace the tnigrations of diflerent races of men and animals, 
it is not the less so to watcli the distribution of plants. I need scarcely 
quote, as a curious fact, that at present a considerable number of Eu- 
ropean plants grow in New Holland, aud that many of them existed 
there even before it was discovered by us. If these could find their 
way thither across the equator, we can easily understand how New 
Holland plants could pass to us before vessels began to navigate be- 
tween the two continents. What currents, winds, and migratory ani- 
mals can effect in this respect has been substantiated by superabundant 
evidence. Long ago, nature established a telegraphic intercourse over 
the globe, by means of which she not oidy makes known her decrees, 
but effects her necessary postal communications ; and if amongst the 
cosmopolitan plants there are so many lower Cryptogams propagated 
by minute light spores, we cannot long remain in doubt about the 
- agents that lent a helping hand to these colouiats. But even this, 
as everyihino- else in this world, has its limit; and it would be nn- 
wise to think that by these means aloue we could exi^lain tlie whole 
distribution of phints. Oceans and larger basins of water offer, indeed, 
great obstacles to the spreading of terrestrial plants, though they may 
be instrumental in carrying fruits and seeds. But experience has 
taught us that the transportation effected by waves and currents is, at 
best, confined to only a limited number of plants which can bear the 
ill ettect of water without losing their vitality, and which, on their 
arrival on 'foreign shores, meet with such conditions as are essential to 
their existence. It is evident that amongst the numerous species com- 
posing the flora of a country, there can only be a very few which are 
able to overleap the boundaries of their natural range- 
But all this does not explain how the peculiarities of a whole flora 
can reappear in far distant countries. If, therefore, we find iu the 
Eocene flora of Europe principally plants bearing the characters of 
those of Australia and Poljmesia, we can hardly believe that the whole 
of them could have passed uninjured across Torres Strait to New 
Guinea, the Moluccas, etc., to Asia, and thence to Europe. On the 
contrary, to render this singular flict somewhat intelligible, we shall be 
compelled by the above-quoted observations, not only to assmue a 
closer connection of the different Polynesian islands with Australia, 
but also a continental connection of them with Asia by way of the 
Moluccas. It is, therefore, not by means of the strait between the 
