THE VASCULAR FLORA OF MACQUARIE ISLAND.—CHEESEMAN. 
53 
the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands were joined to the mainland of New Zealand, 
thus forming, with other extensions, a “ Greater New Zealand ” many times larger 
than its present size. If at the same time there was a northward extension of Antarctica, 
and a similar southern prolongation of the New Zealand area, the distance which at 
present separates Antarctica and the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands might be 
reduced to a space considerably smaller than what is known to have been crossed by 
plants and animals in other parts of the world. 
But in South America we can find a direction along which it is possible to 
reconstruct a land connection with Antarctica without involving enormous geographical 
changes for which there is little or no geological or physical support. I have pre¬ 
viously shown that curving round by way of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia 
there is a comparatively shallow bank which connects the northernmost extremity 
of Antarctica with South America, and on which, for the greater part of the distance, 
the depth of the ocean does not much exceed 1,000 fathoms. For long stretches it is 
even much less, for South Georgia, the Sandwich Group, and the South Orkneys, all 
stand on this bank, and are each surrounded by considerable areas of shallow water. 
Along this line, I believe that in Oligocene times, or thereabouts, Antarctica and 
Fuegia were either connected by a continuous land-bridge, which seems the most 
probable, or by a chain of closely-placed islands of considerable size. 
Under this view, we distinctly connect the fossil tertiary flora discovered by 
Ur. Andersson in Graham Land with the progenitors of the present flora, and at once 
account for their resemblances. We may, too, have a dim vision of an Antarctica 
largely free from ice and snow, and supporting a numerous flora extending right and 
left along the shores of the whole continent. We may imagine a regular interchange 
of species between Antarctica and Fuegia. And, although I consider it improbable 
that New Zealand and Antarctica have ever been directly connected during Tertiary 
times, they may, as I have previously suggested, approached near enough to admit of the 
passage of species from one to the other. We may suppose that the American element 
in the New Zealand flora— Fuchsia, Calceolaria, Gunnera, Oreomyrrhis, Azorella, Caltha, 
Pernettya, Enargea, &c., after travelling from Fuegia to Antarctica, and then along its 
coasts, may have crossed to New Zealand. And, is it not possible that genera like 
Dacrydium, Drimys, Drapetes, Astelia, and many others, all of which are much better 
represented in New Zealand than in America, may have travelled in the reverse 
direction? Such a hypothesis seems to me to be the only way to account for the 
presence of a New Zealand element in the South American flora, and a South American 
element in New Zealand. Direct communication across the Pacific by means of a 
huge land-bridge I regard as altogether chimerical, and without sufficient geological or 
physical support. 
It must be borne in mind that in the above speculations we are dealing with times 
far removed from the present, and most probably separated from it by the greater part 
of the Tertiary period. Those plant-migrations of a distant past that were responsible 
