Notice of Dr. Hooker’s Flora of New Zealand. 349 
are to the species as 282 to 730, each genus having on the aver- 
age only 24 species: so that the species average but eight for 
each order. ‘This makes it one of the most difficult floras in the 
world for a beginner, who must know a natural order for every 
eight species. How recondite, vague, and unsatisfactory the nat- 
ural system of Botany must appear to the New Zealand student ! 
prominent features in the landscape. The Conifere prove to 
be the most prevalent family; but the majority of their species 
are not social but grow intermixed with the trees, soas to give no 
character to the landscape ;—a case just opposite to what occurs 
in the northern hemisphere, at least in North America, where the 
Species are few, but mostly social, and existing in a vast number 
of individuals, which often occupy considerable tracts almost 
exclusively, and thus strikingly impress their features upon the 
landscape. 
The number of kinds of trees is very large in proportion to 
the herbaceous plants; as there are 113 Phzenogamous trees, in- 
cluding shrubs above twenty feet high, or one-sixth of the flora, 
while in England there are not more than 35 native trees, in a 
much larver flora. 
Atemarkably large proportion of the Phenogamous flora of 
New Zealand consists of absolutely peculiar plants: of these 
there are 26 genera and 507 species; or more than two-thirds of 
the whole. The greater part of these are Exogens, Of the 
temaining third, consisting of plants common to New Zealand 
and other countries 
“193 species, or nearly one-fourth of the whole, are Australian. 
89 species, or nearly one-eighth of the whole, are South 
American, 
77 species, or nearly one-tenth of the whole, are common 
to both the above : 
60 species, or nearly one-twelvth of the whole, are European. 
Species, or nearly one-sixteenth of the whole, are An- 
tarctic Islands, Fuegian, &c.” 
These several elements in the New Zealand flora, whether as 
od by identical or cognate species, are in turn subjected 
'0 a critical analysis. The following extract, respecting the Aus- 
at element, is interesting from its direct bearing on the ques- 
lon of transport by water. 
“If the number of plants common to Australia and New Zealand is 
reat, and quite unaccountable for by transport, the absence of certain 
bf extensive groups of the former country is still more incompatible 
Tee theory of extensive migration by oceanic or aerial currents. 
desu is most conspicuous in the case of Eucalypti, and almost 
'Y Other genus of Myrtaceae, of the whole immense genus of . 
Szniss, Vol. XVII, No, 51.—May, 1854. Sings GOS 2 
il ag at Foc 
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