CHAP. XXII 



THE FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND 



497 



The eastern and the western island — with which we are 

 now chiefly concerned — would then differ considerably in 

 their vegetation and animal life. The western and more 

 ancient land already possessed, in its main features, the 

 peculiar Australian flora, and also the ancestral forms of 

 its strange marsupial fauna both of which it had probably 



VValker & Boutall sc. 



MAP SHOWING THE PROBABLE CONDITION OF AUSTRALIA DURING THE CRETACEOUS 

 AND EARLY TERTIARY PERIODS. 



The white portions represent land ; the shaded parts sea. 

 The existing land of Australia is shown in outline. 



received at some earlier epoch by a temporary union with 

 the Asiatic continent over what is now the Java sea. 

 Eastern Australia, on the other hand, possessed only the 

 rudiments of its existing mixed flora, derived from three 

 distinct sources. Some important fragments of the typical 

 Australian vegetation had reached it across the marine 



