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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. 
Regarding the question from the Australian point of view, it is 
impossible in the present state of science to reconcile the fact 
of Acacia , Eucalyptus , 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 w T hole 
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 New 
Zealand, only requiring some slight modifications, owing to 
the later discoveries which are given in the Handbook 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 
