466 



Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



The first column in the following tahle indicates the number of species 

 of each genus which are common to both islands ; the second those peculiar 

 to the North ; and the third those peculiar to the South Island : — 



Genus. 



Both Islands. 



North Island 

 only. 



South Island 

 only. 





G 



3 



11 





2 



6 



2 









3 









5 







3 





3 



5 



1 





1 







9 



Panax 



8 



1 



1 





13 



9 









8 



3 



8 





4 







19 





7 







4 



Raoulia 



3 







9 













3 





4 



5 



9 





2 



4 



5 





14 



6 



21 



These instances are sufficient for the purpose of illustrating the proposi- 

 tion contained in this paper, but those who choose to verify it further will 

 find abundant evidence of it in the published accounts of our flora. The 

 New Zealand case, however, is not so striking as that of the Galipagos, as 

 will appear from the following account given by Mr. Darwin. He tells us 

 that in James Island thirty out of the thirty-eight endemic species are 

 peculiar to it, as were twenty-two out of the twenty-six found in Albemarle 

 Island, the same special feature also prevailing in Charles and Chatham 

 Islands. He further illustrates this peculiarity in distribution by the case 

 of Scalesia, an arborescent genus of the Composite, confined to the Archi- 

 pelago, and containing six species, not one of which was found to grow on 

 any two islands, and he adds, to use his own words " the distribution of the 

 tenants of this Archipelago would not be nearly so wonderful, if, for instance, 

 one island had a mocking- thrush, and a second island some other quite dis- 

 tinct genus ; or if the different islands were inhabited, not by representative 

 species of the same genera of plants, but by totally different genera, as does 

 to a certain extent hold good ; but it is the circumstance that several of the 

 islands possess their own species of mocking-thrush, finches, and numerous 

 plants, these species having the same general habits, occupying analogous 

 situations, and obviously filling the same place in the natural economy of 

 this Archipelago that fills me with wonder. I must repeat, that neither the 

 nature of the soil, nor the height of land, nor the climate, nor the general 

 character of the associated beings, and therefore their action one on another, 

 can differ much in the different islands, and there seems to be no special 



