128 
be incorrect, however, to infer from this circumstance that the 
land remained behind in the history of the development of the earth, 
or to say that New Zealand is representing up to the present time 
the age of ferns, or, what is about the same, the age of the car- 
boniferous period. This abundance of cryptogames is rather the 
mere consequence of the moist climate. Where there is a sufficient 
supply of moisture, the principal vital requisite for the lower ord- 
ers of the vegetable kingdom , they grow to this very day as ex- 
uberantly as in former times. 
The 117 species of ferns described by Dr. Hooker represent 
37 genera. Only 42 species are peculiar to New Zealand; 30 it 
lias in common with South America, 01 with Australia and Tasmania; 
30 species have a cosmopolitan distribution, and 10 species are found 
also in Europe. Of the phanerogamic plants more than two-thirds 
are endemic, or absolutely peculiar to New Zealand, namely 26 ge- 
nera and 507 species, principally of the families of OrchideEe, Coni- 
ferte, Scrophularinese , Epacrideae, Composite, Araliaceas, Emboli i- 
ferae , Myrtacese , and Ranunculaceao The remaining third of the 
phanerogamic flora of New Zealand are species which are found also 
in other countries, illustrating the relations of the plants to those 
of other countries. New Zealand , therefore , appears now-a-days 
together with the neighbouring smaller groups of islands, the Cha- 
tham, Lord Auckland, and Campbell Islands, — the flora of which 
corresponds to that of New Zealand, — as a most peculiar botanical 
province in the temperate zone of the Southern Hemisphere, the 
independent and peculiar character of which originates from the 
isolation of the group of islands from all the larger continents. 1 
This botanical province has been named “ Forster’s realm”. The non- 
endemic. species belong to New Zealand in common partly with the 
extratropical portions of Australia and with Tasmania, partly with 
South America, partly with the antarctic flora upon Fuegia, the 
Falkland Islands, Tristan d’Acunha, Kerguelen Land, St. Paul and 
Amsterdam etc; and few cosmopolitan species also with Europe. 
1 Norfolk Island, despite its close proximity, shows in consequence of its being 
quite near the tropics a closer relation to the floras of the Pacific Islands and Australia. 
