252 Essays. 



Weinmannia, 2 species Areca sapida 



Ligusticum and Angelica, 16 species Arundo conspicua 



Panax, 10 species Cjafcliea, 4 species 



Olearia, 20 species Dicksonia, 3 species 



18. Those genera principally belong to the south temperate zone, where 

 their habitat is mostly insular, and not unfrequently of the same meridionals 

 with the New Zealand group. This is in strict accordance with what might 

 have been expected — that from Norfolk Island in the north down to the 

 Antarctic Islands in the south, including the Chatham Islands, the same 

 genera would be found ; and, in many instances, there are not only the same 

 genera to be met with, but the same species. Moreover, it should not be 

 forgotten that the majority of those genera are very small, some having only 

 two species each (as Alectryon, Dysoxylmn, SJiiiglitia, and Mhipogonu'jii) , 

 others only three or four (as Symenanthera, Pennantia, Glianthus, Ed- 

 loardsia, Atherosperma, Dammara, and PJiyllocladus) , and these are only 

 found as single species in their various habitats ; and of others, containing 

 from five to ten species each (as Plagiantlius, Aristotelia, Forstera, Ourisia, 

 Cordyllne, Astelia, Podocarpus, and Pacrydlum) ,tlQ.e greater number of species 

 of each genus are to be found in New Zealand ; so that New Zealand (the 

 North Island) may not inaptly be deemed their centre or home. 



Purther still — in the midst of much apparent dissimilarity, which, however, 

 is daily lessening — there is a very great concord or botanical affinity between 

 the vegetation of the various islands lying in or about the same parallels of 

 south latitude. A belt around the globe, containing the Chatham Islands, 

 Juan Fernandez, south Chili, the Fuegian and Falkland groups, Tristan 

 d'Acunha, the Cape, Kerguelen's Land, St. Paul's Island, Tasmania, the 

 south-east coast of Australia, Lord Howe's Island, the Middleton group, 

 and Norfolk Island, all contcain the same genera, and in not a few instances 

 (particularly in the smaller islands) the very same species. And this will 

 be much more evident Avhen the toJiole of the botany (i.e., including the 

 numerous smaller Cryptogams, — Musci, Hepaiiccs, Algce, Mi,ngi,Sin.d LicJienes) 

 of those countries is collectively considered ; particularly of those, however 

 distant from each other, which partake of the same isothermal and humid 

 climate. If, instead of writing on the botanical geography of the Northern 

 Island alone of the New Zealand group, I were writing on that of the loJiole 

 group, and at the same time possessed that necessary intimate botanico-geo- 

 graphical and geognostical knowledge of the interior of the Southern and 

 Stewart Islands v,^hich I possess of the Northern Island, I should be in a far 

 better position for comparing the botanical geography of New Zealand with 

 that of other lauds lying within or near the same parallels of south latitude 

 than I now am ; and, from what I already know, I believe that hereafter, and 

 only in some such way, can the botanical geography of the New Zealand 



