GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 187 



bearing on the truth of the two theories of independent 

 creation and of descent with modification. 



The species of all kinds which inhabit oceanic islands 

 are few in number compared with those on equal conti- 

 nental areas: Alph. de Candolle admits this for plants, 

 and Wollaston for insects. New Zealand, for instance, 

 with its lofty mountains and diversified stations, extend- 

 ing over 780 miles of latitude, together with the outlying 

 islands of Auckland, Campbell and Chatham, contain 

 altogether only 960 kinds of flowering plants; if we com- 

 pare this moderate number with the species which swarm 

 over equal areas iu southwestern Australia or at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, we must admit that some cause, 

 independently of different physical conditions, has given 

 rise to so great a difference in number. Even the uni- 

 form county of Cambridge has 847 plants, and the little 

 island of Anglesea 764, but a few ferns and a few intro- 

 duced plants are included in these numbers, and the 

 comparison in some other respects is not quite fair. 

 We have evidence that the barren island of Ascension 

 aboriginally possessed less than half a dozen flowering 

 plants; yet many species have now become naturalized on 

 it, as they have in New Zealand and on every other 

 oceanic island which can be named. In St. Helena there 

 is reason to believe that the naturalized plants and 

 animals have nearly or quite exterminated many native 

 productions. He who admits the doctrine of the creation 

 of each separate species will have to admit that a suffi- 

 cient number of the best adapted plants and animals 

 were not created for oceanic islands; for man has unin- 

 tentionally stocked them far more fully and perfectly 

 than did nature. 



