178 INHABITANTS OF OCEANIC ISLANDS. [Chap. XIU 



The species of all kinds which inhabit oceanic is- 

 lands are few in number compared with those on equal 

 continental areas: Alph. de Candolle admits this for 

 plants, and AYollaston for insects. New Zealand, for 

 instance, with its lofty mountains and diversified sta- 

 tions, extending over 780 miles of latitude, together 

 with the outlying islands of Auckland, Campbell and 

 Chatham, contain altogether only 960 kinds of flower- 

 ing plants; if we compare this moderate number with 

 the species which swarm over equal areas in South- 

 western Australia or at the Cape of Good Hope, we 

 must admit that some cause, independently of different 

 physical conditions, has given rise to so great a differ- 

 ence in number. Even the uniform county of Cam- 

 bridge has 847 plants, and the little island of Angle- 

 sea 764, but a few ferns and a few introduced plants 

 are included in these numbers, and the comparison in 

 some other respects is not quite fair. We have evi- 

 dence that the barren island of Ascension aboriginally 

 possessed less than half-a-dozen flowering plants; yet 

 many species have now become naturalised on it, as 

 they have in New Zealand and on every other oceanic 

 island which can be named. In St. Helena there is 

 reason to believe that the naturalised plants and ani- 

 mals have nearly or quite exterminated many native 

 productions. He who admits the doctrine of the creation 

 of each separate species, will have to admit that a suffi- 

 cient number of the best adapted plants and animals 

 were not created for oceanic islands; for man has unin- 

 tentionally stocked them far more fully and perfectly 

 than did nature. 



Although in oceanic islands the species are few in 

 number, the proportion of endemic kinds (i. e. those 



