CHAP. XIII.] THE AUSTRALIAN REGION. 4G3 



perhaps, wholly been produced, in order to attract insects which aid 

 in their fertilization — that in New Zealand, where insects are so 

 strikingly deficient in variety, the flora should be almost as strik- 

 ingly deficient in gaily-coloured blossoms. Of course there are some 

 exceptions, but as a whole, green, inconspicuous, and imperfect 

 flowers prevail, to an extent not to be equalled in any other part 

 of the globe ; and affording a marvellous contrast to the general 

 brilliancy of Australian flowers, combined \^'ith the abundance 

 and variety of its insect-life. We must remember, too, that the 

 few gay or conspicuous flowering-plants possessed by New Zea- 

 land, are almost all of Australian, South American, or European 

 genera; the peculiar New Zealand or Antarctic genera being 

 almost wholly without conspicuous flowers. In the tropical 

 Galapagos the same thing occurs. Mr. Darwin notices the 

 wretched weedy appearance of the vegetation ; and states that 

 it was some time before he discovered that most of the plants 

 were in flower at the time of his visit ! And the insect-life was 

 correspondingly deficient, consisting mainly of a few terrestrial 

 beetles. 



The poverty of insect-Kfe in New Zealand must, therefore, be 

 a very ancient feature of the country ; and it furnishes an addi- 

 tional argument against the theory of land-connection with, or 

 even any near approach to, either Australia, South Africa, or 

 South America. For in that case numbers of winged insects 

 would certainly have entered, and the flowers would then, as in 

 every other part of the world, have been rendered attractive to 

 them by the development of coloured petals ; and this character 

 once acquired would long maintain itself, even if the insects had, 

 from some unknown cause, subsequently disappeared. 



After the preceding paragraphs were written, it occurred to me, 

 that if this reasoning were correct, New Zealand plants ought to 

 be also deficient in scented flowers ; because it is a part of the 

 same theory, that the odours of flowers have, like their colours, 

 been developed to attract the insects required to aid in their fer- 

 tilization. I therefore at once applied to my friend Dr. Hooker, 

 as the highest authority on New Zealand botany ; simply asking 

 whether there was any such observed deficiency. His reply was: — 



