GENERAL INTllonHCTION 33 



The New Zealand bush is generaUy an iinpeneti'able jungle, 

 while throughout a great part of Australia 



" The land lies desolate and stvipped ; 

 Aci'oss its waste has thinly strayed 

 A tLittered heist of eiicahpt, 

 From whose yaiint unifoiaii is made, 

 A ragged pennry of shade." 



A mixed bush, somewhat similar t(5 that (jf New Zealand, is 

 however, found m the wetter regions of youth-Eastern 

 Australia. But the enigma which baffled the specirlations of 

 the earlier botanists, lies in the fact that the most important of 

 the Australian genera are completely absent from New Zealand. 

 Hence results the lack of superficial resemblance between the 

 floras of the two countries. The gmii trees, wattles, she-oaks, 

 liottle-brushes, hakeas, etc., which are so abundant in Eastenr 

 Australia, are without a single representative here. It might 

 well have been expected that some of these would have found 

 means of crossing the Tasinan Sea. 



It IS little to be wondered at, then, that Sir Joseph Horjker 

 should have found it difficult to theorize concerning the relation- 

 ships of the two floras. Yet he seems scarcely to have realised 

 sufficiently that the differences of climate, surface, and geological 

 conditions existing between the two countries, are such, 

 that similar plant associations could not be expected to occur in 

 each. It must, however, be admitted that these differences in 

 themselves do not constitute a sufficient explanation of the 

 absence from New Zealand of the characteristic Australian 

 species and genera. The gum trees, wattles, hakeas, and she- 

 oaks, flourish as well here a,s m their native land ; and some of 

 these at least can and do maintain themselves without artificial 

 aid in our islands. Of course they have been much assisted in 

 gaining a foothold here by the presence of clearings effected 

 by civilized man. Yet, their complete absence from New 

 Zealand, before the arrival of the European, can be 

 explained only on the assumption that they never before 

 obtained an opportunity of establishing themselves here. As 



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