500 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



development altogether. Wherever flowering plants did originate, it was 

 most probably not in New Zealand ; and all the information we possess on 

 the subject leads to the conclusion that the parent forms of our flora were 

 introduced fi-om other lands during a long succession of ages, and that the 

 process is still going on. 



As has been already stated, there are about 1085 species of flowering 

 plants known to occur in these islands, and of this number about 800 are 

 endemic, that is, confined to this region. The relative numbers given in 

 Hooker's "Flora Nov^-Zealandiae" are 730 and 507, but the additions 

 during the last thirty years have chiefly been of endemic forms. These 

 species have been developed by the peculiar conditions to which the parent 

 forms have been subjected during long periods of isolation. What these 

 conditions have actually been we do not know, but in the majority of cases 

 the changes brought about have only been of specific value. Even where 

 they amount to generic importance the affinities can in nearly every case be 

 traced, and we can form an approximately correct opinion as to the relation- 

 ships indicated. 



The greatest proportion of these endemic species is of distinctly Austra- 

 lian origin ; there are also a number showing Polynesian affinities, and 

 many of antarctic relationship. The remarks therefore which apply to the 

 plants common to New Zealand and the regions specified, will apply to the 

 originals from whence our endemic species have sprung. In accounting 

 now for the species which are common to New Zealand and other parts of 

 the world, we may notice first, that there is no absolute need on the part of 

 the botanist, as there is on the part of the zoologist, to assume the existence 

 in long past ages of former land connections with countries lying round 

 about. But we have now reason to believe that there were former land 

 extensions, which served to widen the area of New Zealand as it existed in 

 olden times, and to bring it into closer proximity with other countries. 

 From the antarctic circle a constant succession of south-westerly and 

 southerly winds and currents may have served from time to time to convey 

 seeds, and birds carrying seeds in their crops and attached to their feet, 

 etc. ; while icebergs may have aided in carrying masses of earth, spores, 

 and seeds of certain antarctic species of plants. The antarctic continent, of 

 which the now existing portions are probably only fragments, had in all likeli- 

 hood alternations of climate such as we know to have existed ^ its antipodes, 

 and dm'ing some of its warmer epochs it would be invaded by plants from 

 South America. These would thus become spread round the south pole, from 

 thence to be distributed radially to the countries lying north, as the climate 

 again altered. Not only would antarctic forms thus find their way into New 

 Zealand, but it is by this means that Sovith American forms were likely 



