4G0 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[rART II. 



But this by no means exhausts the differences between New 

 Zealand and Australia. No less than seven important Australian 

 Natural Orders — Dilleniacea^, Buettneriacese, Polygalese, Tre- 

 mandreas, Casuarinese, Hsemodoracese, and Xyrideae are entirely 

 wanting in New Zealand and several others which are excess- 

 ively abundant and highly characteristic of the former country 

 are very poorly represented in the latter. Thus, Leguminosaa 

 are extremely abundant in Australia, where there are over 1,000 

 species belonging to about 100 genera, many of them altogether 

 peculiar to the country ; yet in New Zealand this great order 

 is most scantily represented, there being only five genera and 

 thirteen species ; and only two of these genera, Swainsonia and 

 Cliantlvus, are Australian, and as the latter consists of but two 

 species it may as well have passed from New Zealand to 

 Australia as the other way, or more probably from some third 

 country to them both. Goodeniaceae with twenty genera and 

 230 species Australian, has but two species in New Zealand — 

 and one of these is a salt-marsh plant found also in Tasmania 

 and in Chile ; and four other large Australian orders — Rhamnege 

 Myoporinese, Proteacese and Santalaceas, have very few repre- 

 sentatives in New Zealand. 



We find, then, that the great fact we have to explain and 

 account for is, the undoubted affinity of the New Zealand flora 

 to that of Australia, but an affinity almost exclusively confined 

 to the least predominant and least peculiar portion of that flora, 

 leaving the most predominant, most characteristic, and most 

 widely distributed portion absolutely unrepresented. We must 

 however be careful not to exaggerate the amount of affinity with 

 Australia, apparently implied by the fact that nearly six- 

 sevenths of the New Zealand genera are also Australian, for, 

 as we have already stated, a very large number of these are 

 European, Antarctic, South American or Polynesian genera, 

 whose presence in the tv/o contiguous areas only indicates a 

 common origin. About one-eighth, only, are absolutely confined 

 to Australia and New Zealand (thirty-two genera), and even of 

 these several are better represented in New Zealand than in 

 Australia, and may therefore have passed from the former to the 

 latter. No less than 174 of the New Zealand genera are 



