116 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [July, 



that of New Zealand is not, as asserted in the paper, the presence of 

 monocotyledonous plants or cycads, the first of which are very rare 

 and the latter barely represented in the coal flora, hut in the very 

 large percentage of ferns and conifers in each case ; and this is merely 

 a case of external resemblance, for the ferns and conifers are not the 

 same, and those of New Zealand are no more closely allied to the 

 genera and species of the coal than the conifers and ferns of other 

 countries are. Turning from the flora to the fauna, the resemblance 

 vanishes. It is not the fact, as stated by Mr. Amery, that no quadru- 

 peds were found in New Zealand at the time of its discovery. A rat 

 was met with, and if, by quadrupeds, mammalia were implied, it should 

 not be forgotten that bats, including forms peculiar to New Zealand, 

 are common, and that cetacea occur around the coast. The gigantic 

 birds are as completely unrepresented in the carboniferous epoch as are 

 the mammals, and the fish and mollusca inhabiting New Zealand at 

 the present day are closely allied to those inhabiting other parts of the 

 globe, and have no connexion with those found in carboniferous rocks ; 

 while the reptiles, fish and mollusca of the carboniferous epoch are in 

 many instances, the two first especially, better represented in other parts 

 of the world at the present day than in New Zealand. As regards man, 

 Mr. Amery 's idea of the Malay origin of the New Zealander would pro- 

 bably be a novelty to the members of the Society who had studied 

 Ethnology. Indeed the whole of Mr. Amery's argument was based upon 

 imperfect data. At the same time Mr. Blanford was quite willing to ad- 

 mit that the different races of mankind differed quite as much from each 

 other as races of lower animals which have been universally considered 

 distinct species, and that the idea of mankind being a genus comprising 

 several different species was perfectly tenable, but he thought no 

 evidence whatever had been brought forward to shew any connexion 

 between these races and geographical or geological provinces. Some 

 races of men, as the Mongolians, inhabited two or more regions, each 

 possessing a distinct fauna and flora. In conclusion, Mr. Blanford 

 believed that Mr. Darwin, in the chapters on geographic distribution 

 in the " Origin of Species," had satisfactorily explained most of the 

 phenomena alluded to in Mr. Amery's paper, despite Mr. Amery's 

 somewhat contemptuous allusion to the " Darwinian theory." 



Mr. Blanford then read a few extracts from his paper ; — " Zoologi- 

 cal Notes." 



