458 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part II. 



believe no two other similarly situated countries in the globe 

 present. Everywhere else I recognise a parallelism or harmony 

 in the main common features of contiguous floras, which 

 conveys the impression of their generic affinity, at least, being 

 affected by migration from centres of dispersion in one of them, 

 or in some adjacent country. In this case it is widely different. 

 Eegarding the question from the Australian point of view, it is 

 impossible in the present state of science to reconcile the fact 

 of Acacia, Evxalyiohis, Casuarina, Callitris, &c., being absent in 

 New Zealand, with any theory of trans-oceanic migration that 

 may be adopted to explain the presence of other Australian 

 plants in New Zealand ; and it is very difficult to conceive of a 

 time or of conditions that could explain these anomalies, except 

 by going back to epochs when the prevalent botanical as well 

 as geographical features of each were widely different from what 

 they are now. On the other hand, if I regard the question from 

 the New Zealand point of view, I find such broad features of 

 resemblance, and so many connecting links that afford irre- 

 sistible evidence of a close botanical connection, that I cannot 

 abandon the conviction that these great differences will present 

 the least difficulties to whatever theory may explain the Avhole 

 case." I will now state, as briefly as possible, what are the 

 facts above referred to as being of so anomalous a character, 

 and there is little difficulty in doing so, as we have them fully 

 set forth, with admirable clearness, in the essay above alluded 

 to, and in the same writer's Introduction to the Flora of Neiu 

 Zealand, only requiring some slight modifications, owing to 

 the later discoveries which are given in the HaMdhooh of the 

 New Zealand Flora. 



Confining ourselves always to flowering plants, we find that 

 the flora of New Zealand is a very poor one, considering the 

 extent of surface, and the favourable conditions of soil and 

 climate.* It consists of 935 species, our own islands possessing 

 about 1,500 ; but a very large proportion of these are peculiar, 

 there being no less than 677 endemic species, and thirty-two 

 endemic genera. 



Out of the 258 species not peculiar to New Zealand, no less 

 than 222 are Australian, but a considerable number of these 



