chap, xxii.] THE FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 
463 
typical Australian flora. Before proceeding further, however, 
let us examine this flora itself, so far as regards its component 
parts and probable past history. 
The Floras of South-eastern and South-western Australia . — 
The peculiarities presented by the south-eastern and south- 
western subdivisions of the flora of temperate Australia are 
most interesting and suggestive, and are, perhaps, unparalleled 
in any other part of the world. South-west Australia is far 
less extensive than the south-eastern division — less varied in 
soil and climate, with no lofty mountains, and much sandy 
desert ; yet, strange to say, it contains an equally rich flora and 
a far greater proportion of peculiar species and genera of plants. 
As Sir Joseph Hooker remarks : — “ What differences there are 
in conditions would, judging from analogy with other countries, 
favour the idea that South-eastern Australia, from its far 
greater area, many large rivers, extensive tracts of mountainous 
country and humid forests, would present much the most exten- 
sive flora, of which only the drier types could extend into South- 
western Australia. But such is not the case ; for though the far 
greater area is much the best explored, presents more varied 
conditions, and is tenanted by a larger number of Natural Orders 
and genera, these contain fewer species by several hundreds.” 1 
The fewer genera of South-western Australia are due almost 
wholly to the absence of the numerous European, Antarctic, 
and South-American types found] in the south-eastern region, 
while in purely Australian types it is far the richer, for while 
it contains most of those found in the east it has a large 
number altogether peculiar to it ; and Sir Joseph Hooker states 
that “ there are about 180 genera, out of GOO in South-western 
Australia, that are either not found at all in South-eastern, or 
1 Sir Joseph Hooker thinks that later discoveries in the Australian Alps 
and other parts of East and South Australia may have greatly modified or 
perhaps reversed the above estimate. But even if this should be the case 
the small area of South-west Australia will still be, proportionally, far the 
richer of the two. It is much to be desired that the enormous mass of 
facts contained in Mr. Bentham’s Flora Australiensis should be tabulated 
and compared by some competent botanist, so as to exhibit the various 
relations of its wonderful vegetation in the same manner as was done by 
Sir Joseph Hooker with the materials available twenty-one years ago. 
