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PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XVII, July 1963 
Fig. 5. Map showing the area of "Howeania.” 
the necessary data, because of the small volume 
of material for study. Lord Howe Island may 
be the focal point for the study of this area 
of the Pacific. 
An enormous number of facts about the 
Australian continent remain to be studied, and 
this will require many years of work, but the 
general outline of the history of organisms 
and environment may be elucidated much more 
rapidly if we know the history of Lord Howe 
Island. For developing synthetic conclusions 
the island represents an extremely useful area. 
COMPOSITION OF THE FAUNA AND FLORA 
The fauna and flora of the island probably 
consists of three different layers of animals 
and plants: 
1. The remnant from the very large land 
mass, now submerged, which we have called 
"Howeania.” This remnant is the oldest part 
of the fauna and flora. 
2. Immigrants from surrounding areas, ar- 
riving after the land was submerged, i. e., very 
long ago, in the geological sense. These ele- 
ments have had time to develop into new 
species. 
3. Recent immigrants, helped directly or in- 
directly by man. We have some data which 
indicate that in recent time several species 
arrived on the island, but finding conditions 
unsuitable for permanent settlement they dis- 
appeared. 
The history of the fauna can be illustrated 
with the help of Figure 5. If we suppose that 
the shallow area of the sea, shown by the white 
area, was the outline of the submerged land 
