36 PLANTS OP NEW ZEALAND 



South American Element. 



The South American element is better developed in New 

 Zealand than in Australia ; this may be due to our being 

 somewhat nearer to Peru and Chili, than Australia is. The 

 genera Fuchsia and Calceolaria are confined to New Zealand, 

 and temperate or sub- tropical South America. Myosurus 

 aristata, Sophora tetraptera (The Yellow Kowhai), Haloragis 

 erecta, Hydrocotyle Americana, Veronica elliptica, and a few 

 other species, are also confined to the same two districts. It 

 may, however, be questioned whether the forms of these 

 species, occurring on both sides of the Pacific, are exactly the 

 same in every case. Further investigation is required on this 

 point. Probably about a fourth of the New Zealand genera 

 are also found in South America, though not confined to these 

 two places. A connection of such a pronounced nature as 

 this indicates that at some time the two stations must have 

 been united by land, or at least by a chain of islands. 



The evidence of animal life shows that the former alternative 

 is the more probable one, and that there has been direct land 

 communication with South America, perhaps in sub-tropical 

 regions. From these and other reasons, Captain Hutton 

 assumed that in the Cretaceous, or Early Eocene, a Pacific 

 Continent connected New Zealand and New Guinea with 

 Chili.* 



Sub-Antarctic Element. 



But a much more striking phenomenon is the existence 

 between latitudes 55 S. and 65 S. of groups of islands separated 

 sometimes by thousands of miles of sea, yet often possessing 

 native plants of the same species. This community of species 

 shows that these islands must have been in comparatively close 

 communication with each other in quite recent times. Some 

 of the plants referred to are found in New Zealand, more 

 particularly in the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island. A 



*" Nature" July 13th, 1905. (This letter is probably the last published scientific 

 writing of the great biologist.) 



