CHAPTER VII 



AGE AND AREA (contd.). CONFIRMATION 

 BY PREDICTION 



i'J-iOT^cb Howe I? 



/ ^'STtares 



ohj-ity /? 



tAuLcJclamL I. 

 CampbelL I^ '' 



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(confirmation of the general idea advanced in the hypothesis 

 can be easily obtained by applying it to predict what will be 

 found in certain places 

 or under certain circum- 

 stances. Many success- 

 ful predictions of this 

 kind have been made for 

 the area comprised by 

 New Zealand and its 

 surrounding islands (the 

 Kermadecs, 420 miles 

 north; Chathams, 375 

 miles east; and Auck- 

 lands, 190 miles south). 

 It will be well to instance 

 a few of these. 



To begin with simple 

 cases (129) ; from the fact 

 that to the east of these 

 outlying islands the 

 soundings are in general 



of enormous depth, while the water between them and New 

 Zealand is comparativel}' shallow, one may infer that their 

 floras have in general the same sources of origin as that of New 

 Zealand. This is indicated also by the very few species in them, 

 other than their own local endemic species, which do not occur 

 in New Zealand. If they had received their flora by casual 

 transport over sea, one would expect that it would be a miscel- 

 laneous assortment, and that it would not show any numerical 

 relations to the flora of the larger island. But as such relation- 

 ships are shown very clearly one may, I think, take it for granted 

 that the connection was by land, at least so far as the bulk of 

 the flora of these islands is concerned. Now in this case it is 

 clear that on the hypothesis ol' Age and Area, this flora should 

 in general be very old in New Zealand, or it could not have 



"^JVTouj^Cuxrte- / 



New Zealand and outlying islands. The 

 dotted line is the 1000-fathom limit. 



