438 
THE AGE OF NEW ZEALAND. 
ct Australia, on acccount of its isolated geographical posi- 
tion, strange productions, curious physical character, and 
the low degree of development attained by its flora and 
fauna must not be regarded as a newly-born island, but on 
the contrary, as a country in its senility, which from time 
immemorial had retained its character unchanged. New 
Holland may be likened to an old man rather than to a child ; 
none of the newer formations cover its primitive rocks, 
and its older deposits, principally consisting of layers of 
carboniferous sandstone and porphyry, are horizontal and 
undisturbed.” 
This writer, though differing in the conclusions he arrives 
at from those here expressed, still adduces facts which fully 
establish the views taken ; there is nothing stated which 
can prove that every species was originally confined to a 
more or less circumscribed space, but everything to bear out 
the idea of distinct creations, and that the flora of the Eocene 
pervaded the whole earth, since allied and closely resembling 
species once simultaneously existed in both hemispheres, 
and using that writers similitude of an old man in extreme 
senility, to express the productions of Australia and New 
Zealand, and a child to represent those of Europe, it is far 
more likely that wherever there is an identity of species that 
it is to be regarded as a remnant of the older flora rather 
than a gift from the more recent one. 
These remarks will therefore apply to South Africa, and 
other lands of the southern hemisphere as well as to Austra- 
lia and New Zealand, in all which, wherever investigation 
has been carried, similar peculiarities of flora and fauna 
have been noticed. 
The primitive character of the New Zealand flora is like- 
wise very striking from the low degree of development or 
rudimentary appearance of many of its plants and flowers, 
so much so, that the observer can scarcely fail to regard 
them as embryo forms, to be perfected at some future 
period; thus there is the miniature representative of the 
dandelion, with its peculiar leaf and flower ; of the butter- 
cup, with every flower varying in the number of its petals. 
