510 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[PAUT IT. 



New Zealand is shown to be so completely continental in 

 its geological structure, and its numerous wingless birds so 

 clearly imply a former connection with some other land (as do 

 its numerous lizards and its remarkable reptile, the Hatteria), 

 that the total absence of indigenous land-mammalia was hardly 

 to be expected. Some attention is therefore given to the curious 

 animal which has been seen but never captured, and this is 

 shown to be probably identical with an animal referred to by 

 Captain Cook. The more accurate knowledge which has 

 recently been obtained of the sea bottom around New Zealand 

 enables us to determine that the former connection of that island 

 with Australia was towards the north, and this is found to agree 

 w^ell with many of the peculiarities of its fauna. 



The flora of New Zealand and that of Australia are now both 

 so well known, and they present so many peculiarities, and 

 relations of so anomalous a character, as to present in Sir Joseph 

 Hooker's opinion an almost insoluble problem. Much additional 

 information on the physical and geological history of these two 

 countries has, however, been obtained since the appearance of 

 Sir Joseph Hooker's works, and I therefore determined to apply 

 to them the same method of discussion and treatment which has 

 been usually successful with similar problems in the case of 

 animals. The fact above noted, that New Zealand was con- 

 nected with Australia in its northern, tropical portion only, of 

 itself affords a clue to one portion of the specialities of the New 

 Zealand flora — the presence of an unusual number of tropical 

 families and genera, while the temperate forms consist mainly of 

 species either identical with those found in Australia or closely 

 allied to them. But a still more important clue is obtained in 

 the geological structure of Australia itself, which is shown to 

 have been for long periods divided into an eastern and a western 

 island, in the latter of which the highly peculiar flora of tem- 

 perate Australia was developed. This is found to explain with 

 great exactness the remarkable absence from New Zealand of 

 all the most abundant and characteristic Australian genera, both 

 of plants and of animals, since these existed at that time only 

 in the western island, while New Zealand was in connection 

 with the eastern is.and alone and with the tropical portion of 



