DECEMBER. 25 



Zealand. Whichever region is its headquarters or starting 

 point, the question arises, How did it spread to the other ? 

 Land connection say some, calmly ignoring the thousands 

 of miles of abyssal seas which separate the two areas. The 

 seeds could not be carried by the wind, for they are enclosed 

 in a succulent berry. But they could be and are carried in 

 the crops and stomachs of birds, and in this way might be 

 borne a thousand miles or more by chance. For it is 

 not an uncommon thing in the Auckland peninsula, after 

 periods of westerly gales, to hear of Australian birds which 

 have strayed there, and for one that is seen or shot there 

 must be many which arrive and probably get killed by gulls 

 and other coast birds or succumb to the severe knocking 

 about they have got. In some such way it might be 

 possible to account or succulent-fruited plants being spread 

 across considerable areas of sea or from island to island. 

 But unless there were, during past epochs, intervening 

 islands not necessarily, of course, in a straight line it is 

 difficult to account for the occurrence of Fuchsias in two so 

 widely separated regions and nowhere else on the surface 

 of the globe. The evidence at present available points to a 

 former land connection across the antarctic, but it is still 

 problematical, and we must wait for further light on the 

 question before coming to a decision. 



I have spoken of the sombre hues of the Fuchsia, bvit what 

 a pretty sight it is on a bright breezy day to see the play of 

 colour as the wind turns up the whitish under-sides of the 

 leaves. Though thin in texture, and exposing a large 

 surface to the action of the sun and wind, these leaves are 

 remarkably well protected against extremes of heat and 

 cold. Their upper surface has no or very few apertures, 

 while the green pigment which so freely absorbs the sun's 

 light and heat is densely packed in the cells just underneath 

 it. The lower surface, on the other hand, is perforated by 

 very numerous stomata or breathing pores, and the cells 

 immediately under the epidermis contain only air, and 

 hence act as a non-conducting layer as far as heat is 

 concerned. From rough measurements I calculate that 

 there are about 350,000 stomata on every square inch of the 



