440 Willis,— The Distribution of Species in New Zealand. 
the three main islands (North, South, and Stewart, with the Three Kings 
islets at the north end), but also those only found in other parts of the 
Dominion, and even beyond, viz. in the outlying islands of the Kerma- 
decs, separated by 420 miles to the north, the Chathams, 375 miles 
to the east, the Snares (60 m.), Aucklands (190 m.), and Campbells 
(330 m.) to the south, the Antipodes (490 m. SE.), and Macquarie (570 m. 
SW.). The last is officially part of Tasmania. Now these islands are as 
widely separated from New Zealand, and in all directions except west, 
as are the Maldives from Ceylon, to which they officially belong. The 
Maidive flora has never been counted as part of that of Ceylon, and for 
scientific purposes 1 the floras of these outlying islands have no right to 
be counted as part of that of New Zealand, unless in thinking of New 
Zealand as the continental area which it once apparently was. One 
might with equal right include the flora of the Faroes (180 m. away), or 
even Iceland (430 m.) or Norway in that of Scotland. I have therefore 
excluded from the flora as here dealt with all those plants 2 which are 
only found in the outlying islands, and have reckoned as widely dis- 
tributed species, not as endemic to New Zealand, those 3 which occur in 
them as well as in New Zealand, though nowhere else. This treatment, 
it is almost needless to remark, greatly reduces (from 1,000 or 1,080 to 902) 
the total of species counted as endemic to New Zealand, which has been 
unnaturally swelled by their inclusion, probably in the unconscious effort to 
make it seem as important as possible. If these outlying forms be reckoned 
as endemic to New Zealand, one should also reckon (which is now impos- 
sible) the numerous other species that analogy shows must have existed 
upon the land intermediate between these islands and New Zealand, which is 
now submerged. The tendency of workers in Europe is always to under- 
estimate distances abroad, and I have found in a long residence in other 
countries that Calcutta is usually supposed to be near Colombo, Buenos 
Aires or the Andes near to Rio, though in each case the separation is about 
1,200 miles. But to obviate any suspicion that these species have been 
excluded in order to bring the New Zealand flora within a certain pre- 
arranged scheme, it may be well to state that they bear out my age 
and area hypothesis in a most complete way. 
In dealing with the Ceylon flora I was fortunate enough to be able 
to divide the wides into two groups — those found in Peninsular India 
(younger), and those of wider dispersal (older) — and it was the marked 
difference in rarity between these two groups that confirmed me in the 
hypothesis, till then only formed in a kind of shadowy way, that (1) age, and 
(2) area occupied, go together. In figures running from 1, Very Common, to 
6, Very Rare, the endemics showed rarity 4-3, the Ceylon-Peninsular- 
1 For practical purposes, of course, the case is entirely different. 
2 In all 91 (80 endemic to the islands). 3 In all 98. 
