492 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
very limited few indeed—to be able to generalize and build up into a homo- 
geneous whole the heterogeneous materials collected by the multitude. 
We can all help to accumulate these materials together, leaving it to the 
master-minds of science to use the fruits of our labour. 
T have very briefly attempted to show what are the principal theories 
enunciated to account for our flora. I now propose to examine some of the 
modes by which plants become distributed, particularly noticing their appli- 
eation to New Zealand plants, and further, to show a little more in detail 
than Mr. Wallace could afford to do in a general work, the relations of our 
flora to that of Australia. 
In examining such a problem as the distribution of plants, it is manifest 
that one of the most important considerations to be taken into account is 
their mode of dispersal, and chiefly, of course, the mode of dispersal of their 
seeds. Some plants, such as the strawberry, no doubt have the power of 
spreading themselves over wide areas by means of their long trailing shoots, 
as we see this plant doing at the present day wherever it has been intro- 
duced. But even the strawberry.appears to be dispersed much more by its 
seeds than its suckers, and it is the seed therefore which must be considered 
chiefly. The most important agents concerned in the dispersal of seeds 
are (1) the wind; (2) birds or other animals; and (3) ocean currents. 
Besides these, icebergs may have been the means of bringing some plants 
to our shores; rivers have certainly distributed them from higher to lower 
levels ; and lastly, human agency has been an efficient cause in late yeaTs- 
But for the first of these extra causes—viz., icebergs—we have no data 
beyond very general ones to go upon, and the other two have little bearing 
on the wide question of the origin of the flora. 
(1.) The wind is certainly a most efficient agent in the dispersal of seeds, 
and many plants have their seeds specially adapted for the purpose of being 
so distributed. The order Composite shows the greatest specialization - 
this respect, the calyx-limb being modified in a large proportion of the 
species into a pappus, which acts as a parachute. The order is abe 
largest in the New Zealand flora, numbering 24 genera and including 
167 species, but from its wide-spread means of dispersion is of less value 
than less highly differentiated orders. The majority of our _ 
of this order are either Anstralian or are allied to Australian forms, 
a few Pane of very wide —e Another contrivance for wind- - 
e@ of the stigma in the form of 
lee hdbey oie This i represented in the == : 
_ Clematis, & genus occurring in all temperate climates, and of wh 
. New Zealand species, as well as the — are ype 
wt.” Seer 
