GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANIC BEINGS. 127 



view that this island has been mainly stocked by seeds 

 brought with earth and stones on icebergs, drifted by the 

 prevailing currents, this anomaly disappears. New Zea- 

 land in its endemic plants is much more closely related 

 to Australia, the nearest mainland, than to any other re- 

 gion : and this is what might have been expected ; but 

 it is also plainly related to South America, which, al- 

 though the next nearest continent, is so enormously re- 

 mote that the fact becomes an anomaly. But this diffi- 

 culty partially disappears on the view that New Zealand, 

 South America, and the other southern lands have been 

 stocked in part from a nearly intermediate though distant 

 point, namely, from the Antarctic islands, when they were 

 clothed with vegetation, during a warmer tertiary period, 

 before the commencement of the last Glacial period. The 

 affinity, which, though feeble, I am assured by Dr. Hooker 

 is real, between the flora of the southwestern corner of 

 Australia and of the Cape of Good Hope, is a far more 

 remarkable case ; but this affinity is confined to the 

 plants, and will, no doubt, some day be explained. 



