AMERICAN 
JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
VOL. X 
December, 1923 
No. 10 
AUSTRALASIAN BOTANICAL NOTES 
III. NEW ZEALAND 
Douglas Houghton Campbell 
(Received for publication January 2, 1923) 
Although one is accustomed to associate New Zealand and Australia, 
as divisions of Australasia, the two countries nevertheless differ much from 
each other both in climate and topography, and these differences are re¬ 
flected in the character of the vegetation. New Zealand, on the whole, 
differs markedly from Australia in the general aspect of its flora. It is not 
always realized that the two countries are sundered by more than a thousand 
miles of sea—much too great a barrier to admit of any considerable inter¬ 
change of plants under existing conditions. To the north of New Zealand, 
but separated by about the same distance as that to Australia, lie Fiji, 
Tonga, and Samoa, but no large land-masses occur in the great Pacific area 
north of New Zealand. 
New Zealand consists of two large islands, the North and South Islands, 
and a number of much smaller outlying ones, comprising altogether 104,471 
square miles. Of this area all but about 500 square miles belongs to the two 
main islands, the South Island being somewhat larger than the North 
Island. These two islands occupy about twelve degrees of latitude (34 0 
-46°), while the Kermadecs to the North reach 30°, and the sub-antarctic 
islands to the south extend to 55 0 . This of course means a considerable 
difference in temperatures between north and south, but not so much as 
might be inferred, owing to the decidedly insular climate which prevails 
throughout New Zealand, as no part of the country is more than 100 miles 
from the sea and the coast-line is very extensive, with innumerable inden¬ 
tations often reaching far inland. 
Unlike Australia, New Zealand is extremely mountainous, and the 
mountains are much higher than those of Australia. These lofty moun¬ 
tains exercise a powerful influence on the rainfall which is extremely heavy 
in certain districts, and, except in a few localities, is generally abundant and 
well distributed. As a whole, the climate is a distinctly temperate one. At 
the north, frost is practically absent, except at higher elevations, and even 
in the extreme south the winters are mild with little severe freezing weather. 
[The Journal for November (10: 459-514) was issued November 27, 1923.] 
515 
