540 Proceedings. 



so that I am not in a position even to form an opinion on several papers. 

 Moreover, amongst the titles of those papers, simply taken as read, are one 

 or two which doubtless belong to the most valuable portion of the year's 

 work. I refer more particularly to those on Fossil Brachiopoda, and on 

 the Fossil Botany of New Zealand, by the Dkector of the Geological Survey 

 Department ; for these and other reasons I shall request your permission to 

 depart from the usual com'se, and to occupy a portion of the evening with a 

 few remarks on a single subject — the connection between the Floras of 

 New Zealand and Austraha. 



On the PielationsJdjy hetween the Floras of New Zealand and Australia. 

 The vast difference between the area of these two countries necessarily 

 involves a great disproportion between the number of species in their 

 respective floras, so that no great amount of surprise is experienced on 

 finding the attention at first arrested by the series of strong contrasts which 

 they present rather than by prominent proofs of affinity. Nearly three- 

 fourths of the Australian forest consists of Eucalypti, of which there are 

 fully 140 species, comprising the loftiest trees in the world, but the genus 

 is not even represented in New Zealand. Again, 600 species of Proteaceous 

 plants, Banksia, Grevillea, Hakea, Isopogon, Persoonia etc., impart a pecu- 

 liar character to the scenery of many Australian districts, but only two 

 species of the order are known in New Zealand. Australia possesses nearly 

 1,000 species of Leguminos^, which contribute largely to the physiognomical 

 character of its landscapes, or add to its floral beauty. New Zealand has 

 only some thirteen species, none of which are important. On the other 

 hand, the characteristic genera of the New Zealand flora are either absent 

 or but sparingly represented in Australia, so that they do not form pro- 

 minent features in its flora. The extensive forests of Nesodap)hne, Fagus, 

 and Podocarpus, so characteristic of this colony, are rarely met with in 

 Austraha, and none of the species are identical. Copirosma, which forms so 

 large a portion of the undergrowth throughout the colony, and comprises 

 some twenty-five species, is but sparingly represented in Austraha, where 

 the genus is hmited to five species, its place there being partly occupied by 

 Opercularia. Bacrydium, which is more highly developed in New Zealand 

 than in any other country, and ranges fi'om the sea-level to the extreme 

 limit of ligneous vegetation, is restricted to a single species in Australia, the 

 famous Huon pine of Tasmania. Celmisia, a remarkable genus of Asters 

 comprising some thirty species, distributed from the North Cape to the 

 Bluff, and ascending from the sea-level to the highest limits of vegetable 

 growth, is represented in Australia by a single species common to both 

 countries. Metrosideros, which, in one form or other, is an important factor 

 in all forest vegetation, is hmited to a single species of no great importance 

 in Australia, 



