AUSTRALIA AND EUROPE FORMERLY ONE CONTINENT. 23 
learn a little geography — pre-historic geography though it be 
— by the assistance of botany. The principal questions that 
meet us at the very outset are : Has a continental connection 
between these two quarters of the fglobe been possible or 
probable ? Are there any proofs similar to those by which 
is supported the former connection between Europe and 
America ? None whatever ; moreover, the geological inves- 
tigations respecting this point are still so unsatisfactory that 
we gain no support from them to account for a contempora- 
neous and homologous vegetation in these two extreme 
corners of the globe. Nothing remains save to assume either 
the existence of several centres of creation, or the transmission 
from one locality to the other of the greater number of these- 
plants over land and sea. By adopting the first alternative, 
we should have to assume that, at the same geological period. 
New Holland as’well as Europe produced the germs of iden- 
tical, or very nearly identical plants. An identity of climate — *. 
which, under any circumstances, must be granted — would seem 
to settle the question, by the adoption of this hypothesis, in 
the most simple manner. And why should not similar, or even 
perfectly identical plants originate in two or several parts of 
the globe, provided external circumstances are favourable ? 
Theoretically speaking, there is, indeed, nothing to oppose to 
this, provided that the origin of species is brought about exclu- 
sively by external circumstances. But we are led to quite an 
opposite view by what we know of the distribution of existing 
plants. We know that every species was originally confined 
to a more or less circumscribed space, whence it spread cen- 
trifugally. However extensive the range of certain plants 
may be, it has always a well-defined limit, beyond which the 
species seldom ventures in isolated patches. Wherever we 
do meet with such exceptional cases, similar to those of the 
enclaves in the distribution of languages, we have no difficulty 
in recognizing in them intruders, or as parts cut off from the 
principal stock, and geology has already in some respects 
accounted for the cause of this dismemberment. But not a 
single species has as yet been found occupying two distinct 
territories which are evidently the result of two centres of 
creation. These facts justify us in rejecting the proposition 
of a contemporaneous origin of identical or nearly identical 
species in two countries widely separated from each other, 
and nothing remains but to assume that either the New 
Holland plants emigrated to Europe, or (what is less probable) 
the former European plants, which had an Australian charac- 
ter, passed from Europe to New Holland. 
Wandering is the destiny of mortals. If man or beast are 
compelled to leave their native place, their organization, and the 
