OCEANIC FLOEA. 35 



than a hundred different trees are found which have come from the Asiatic 

 continent. But the typical forms are the same throughout the whole of Australia, 

 where the vegetation everywhere presents a great uniformity of aspect. In 

 the woodlands the prevailing types are those of the eucalyptus, acacias, casuarinas, 

 and trees with slightly developed foliage or leaves pointing vertically dowuAvards. 

 The open stepj)es are overgrown chiefly with diverse kinds of scrub and brush- 

 wood. 



The Australian indigenous flora is extremely rich in forms, in this respect 

 yielding only to that of the Cape regions. New Caledonia, although lying 800 

 miles from the coast of Queensland, offers in its vegetation a surprising resem- 

 blance to that of Australia ; yet the distance is too great to assume any consider- 

 able interchange of species. On the other hand the New Hebrides, lying 

 immediately to the east and north-east of New Caledonia, are connected with the 

 Indian zone by their luxuriant tropical flora. 



Norfolk Island, also in the East Australian seas, is distinguished by its endemic 

 vegetation, which includes one of the finest species of araucaria, a palm, some 

 thistles and tree-ferns. It forms a transition between Australia and New Zealand, 

 which differ altogether in the character of their respective floras. According to 

 Grisebach, that of New Zealand shows more affinity with the Araucanian of South 

 America than with that of the neighbouring continent. Its evergreen woodlands 

 are the richest in the world in tree-ferns, and consequently give a better idea 

 than any others of the aspect of nature in the geological epochs when the great 

 cryptogamous plants prevailed. But on the whole this flora is comparatively poor, 

 which is doubtless due to the isolated position of the archipelago in the South Sea. 

 Notwithstanding its proximity to the Chilian seaboard, the island of Juan-Fernandez 

 is connected with the New Zealand zone through the high proportion of its tree- 

 ferns. 



The impoverished floras of the oceanic islands south of the forty-fifth degree of 

 latitude scarcely deserve mention when compared with those of the corresponding 

 latitudes in the northern hemisphere. Although lying as far from the south as do 

 Havre and Cherbourg from the north pole, Kerguelen Island possesses only eighteen 

 flowering plants, or about five times less than Spitzbergen. This poverty is due 

 partly to its arid soil and isolated position, partly also perhaps to the extreme 

 uniformity of the annual climate and to the deficient sunlight in those foggy 

 Austral regions. The lands lying nearer the antarctic snows still possess a few 

 stunted growths, although passing navigators might suppose their rockbound 

 shores absolutely destitute of vegetation. The first explorers who ventured into 

 the antarctic seas speak with a sort of awe and horror of these dreary wastes, and 

 endless succession of bare cliffs, sands, and snows with peaks lit up b}^ watery sun- 

 beams or wrapped in mists, according as the clouds gathered or were dispersed 

 by the boisterous winds. " Cursed lauds ! " they exclaimed, " abode of everlasting 

 gloom ! " 



