Vol. II, No. 1 JANUARY, 1884]. 
on tHE ORIGIN, OF THE FAUNA, AND FLORA 
OF NEW ZEALAND.* 
BY CAPTAIN F. W. HUTTON. 
oe 
I.—THE AUSTRALIAN AND SOUTH AMERICAN ELEMENTS. 
Eleven years have elapsed since I read a paper to the Wel- 
lington Philosophical Society, on the “Geographical Relations 
of the New Zealand Fauna.”+ During that time the data on 
which the discussion of this question rest have very much in- 
creased, and the literature of the subject has been enriched by 
the valuable works of Mr. A. R. Wallace on the distribution of 
animals ; works which embody the results of much patient 
research and acute reasoning. Under these circumstances I 
wish, in this address, to return to my theme once more. I wish 
to explain how far I now think my own ideas of 1872 to be 
erroneous ; how far I am able to agree with Mr. Wallace in his 
view of the origin of our fauna and flora, published in 1880 in 
“Tsland Life ;’ and how far, as it appears to me, Mr. Wallace’s 
theory fails to explain the whole of the facts. I also wish to 
suggest the alterations and additions that seem to be necessary 
in order to get a good working hypothesis. It will be advisable, 
however, not to limit ourselves to New Zealand, but to take first 
a wider view of the subject ; for the faunas and floras of Australia 
and Polynesia are so intimately connected with those of New 
Zealand, that the origin of the latter cannot well be considered 
until a general knowledge of the biological and geological history 
of the Pacific area has been obtained. 
Fossil plants have been found in many places in New Zealand, 
often abundantly and in good preservation, and they belong to 
several different geological periods. These plants have not yet 
been described, but they have been examined by Dr. Hector, 
who has puoplished an abstract of the results of his examination 
in the Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. XI. (1878), 
p. 536, and in the “ Handbook of New Zealand” (1880). The 
earliest traces of plants are very obscure, but the triassic rocks 
contain Ferns (Glossopterts), Horse-tails (Schzzoneura), Cycads 
(Zamites), and wood of a Kauri (Dammara). The oldest known 
extensive flora is of jurassic age ; it consists chiefly of ferns and 
cycads, whick are closely allied to those which inhabited India 
at the same period, as exemplified by the fossils of the Rajmahal 
Hills. In the cretaceous rocks ‘numerous dicotyledonous plants 
occur, forty different species having been distinguished. These, 
as well as some conifers, belong to species closely allied to those 
* Presidential address to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, Ist 
November, 1883. 
t+ Trans. N. Z. Inst., Vol. V. (1872), p. 227; and Annals and Magazine of 
Nat, Hist., series 4, Vol. 13, p. 25. 
