- 
Es and with the northern palaeotropic floras by either land or across a narrow 
E ee Towards Vie end of ar ealiah of elevation, when the mountains 
328 The History of the Flora from the Jurassie Period to the Present Time. 
Ulmus and Acer. He also records the Australian Caswarına and Eucalyptus. 
Mixed with these were plants referred to existing New Zealand genera or their 
representatives. Judging from the figures accompanying the descriptions, 
ETTINGHAUSEN’s identifications, if accepted at all, must be received with the 
greatest doubt, indeed I do not think they are of any value. But were these 
genera present, then there must have been a universal temperate flora, a matter 
hardly conceivable in the fact of the tropical climate as a barrier. This ter- 
tiary fossil flora, however, is a fact, and it teaches us that many species and 
genera have passed away, just as the present species would have gone, in the 
future, or changed by natural means, had New Zealand remained a virgin land. 
The great elevation was succeeded by an equally great depression in the 
Öligocene-Miocene, so that New Zealand became merely a series of small is- 
lands. This reduction of the land-surface must have brought about the ex- 
tinction of many species, especially amongst the alpine plants, and plastic 
species, perhaps the sole survivors of large genera, would find a haven of refuge 
on rock-faces and other habitats unsuited for forest-plants. It follows then that 
the primitive Subantarctic element would be decimated and that the present 
species or genera are a mere fraction of the original extensive company. As 
for the lowland forest species they would not suffer nearly so much, for it is 
surprising how great a plant-population can thrive on a small island, such 
as the Little Barrier, where there are, at the present time most of the forest- 
plants of Northern Auckland. 
During the Pliocene elevation again took place and extended far into 
the Pleistocene. The alpine plants could return to the mountains, and under 
the new stimuli, ancient genera would be revivified and new forms appear. 
"Again the land extended far to the N. S. E. and to some extent to the 
W. Exchanges would be possible with Australia by transoceanic methods 
N the plateau. Then, by epharmonic! change, would arise the intense 
erophytes‘), descendants of mesophytes it may be, such as Carmichaelia Petriei 
a leafy forest-species, or ie prostrata from S. microphylla. Then, 
piıy rind in the DEE FOR 
a 
* 'owards the end’ of ie ER ag set in once more; “ 
; re a far into. the maonntains and Aue en of the ee ciated 
