3 
group, far from any mainland, contain genera and species peculiar to 
itself, (among many which are con-generic with others in the nearest, 
though far off, land,) and thereby constitute a Botanical centre, or region! 
Wei-G all existing species created at once! or, are species still being 
created ? or, has such creation ceased! and, if so, when ! Are all tho 
so-called generic or specific destinations really such 1 Has a species a 
power of evolution and metamorphosis per se ; which, the factors,time, 
suitable soils, and climate, being given, knows no bounds 1 Have there 
been in past ceras any potent occult elemental causes at work, differing 
only in intensity combination and constancy from what now arc, through 
which sub-varieties, varieties and species were the more readily evolved ? 
May not a plant be outwardly distinct, yet chemically the same ? May 
a plant be almost entirely outwardly the same with another, and yet 
chemically distinct! May not Nature educe, under the most favorable 
circumstances, from two genera slightly differing fertile plants forming 
new genera more divergent! and may not such (again crossed by Nature) 
produce plants still more widely differing ? Why, among several species 
of any given endemic genus (e. g. Coprosma , Dracopliyllum , Veronica,) 
should some species be of robust and vigorous growth and development, 
and common everywhere ; other species of weakly growth and develop¬ 
ment, and comparatively scarce! are some of those forms older than 
others! and, if so, which are the seniors ! Are not the more robust and 
vigorous ones, through their own progressive increase, likely to extirpate 
the weaker ones! - Such are some of the thoughts which 
must often arise in the intelligent Botanist’s mind, especially when 
contemplating new or okl forms in far off insular situations. 
§ ii. GEOGRAPHIC. 
3. But, laying aside the ideal and theoretical, and coming to the 
practical and real :—how does the vegetation of this Northern Island of 
New Zealand appear when seen for the first time ? What is its peculiar 
aspect! The answer will mainly depend on two things : (1.) the place 
whence the newly-arrived beholder last came; and (2.) the place in New 
Zealand where be lands ;—not forgetting his expectations,—as the eye 
ever sees what the mind brings. If he last left the shores of Great 
Britain,—then the recollection of her verdant fields, may cause the 
brown fern-clad hills and dark-green forests of New Zealand to appear 
the more gloomy and sad; if his last landscapes were either South African 
or Australian, then their glaucous sea-green hue and arid appearance, 
