1 1 4 EVOL UTION AND NA TURAL THEOL G Y. 



as Florida is purely North American, and the 

 West Indies are quite as Northern as Southern 

 in their character.* 



Australia is far below America in the 

 character of its natural productions. It has 

 been so long separated from America (if indeed 

 it was ever joined to it at all) that it forms, 

 with the adjacent islands, one of the primary 

 biological divisions of the globe. But it is 

 isolated from all the great Continents, and 

 therefore its productions are of a very low 

 type, consisting in mammals, chiefly of mar- 

 supials (an Order of which some few repre- 

 sentatives are likewise found in America), 

 while it still retains the only living represen- 

 tatives of the transitional order, Monotremata. 

 Consequently we find that the animals and 

 plants of more highly developed countries 

 (rabbits, sheep, thistles, etc.,) thrive in Australia 

 and New Zealand as well as in their own 

 country, and must ultimately come into colli- 

 sion with, and probably extirpate many of 

 the indigenous plants and animals. America 



* All that is meant here is, that the West Indies possess many strictly 

 American forms that occur in North America. The Europeo-American 

 forms do not reach them. 



