BOTANY. 
431 
genera and five hundred and seven species, which is more than 
two-thirds of the whole, peculiar to New Zealand, must 
establish the claim to its having a botanic centre of its own.* 
Allowing New Zealand to be the remains of a grand conti¬ 
nental line, we may naturally expect that many of its plants 
would have a wide range, and be found in distant localities. 
Indeed, there are many reasons to suppose that the innumer¬ 
able isles of the great Pacific are but the peaks of a submerged 
continent, which may have approached America on one side, 
and Australia on the other. A remarkable circumstance is, 
that the plants of the antarctic islands, which are equally 
natives of New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia, are almost 
invariably found only on the lofty mountains of those countries. 
The fact also that both the New Zealand line, and the grand 
continental one of South America, are still being upheaved, 
tends to prove, that the causes which submerged the supposed 
continent are still in operation, and are continuing to deepen 
the ocean bed between them, in the same ratio that the 
respective sides are being raised. 
The subject of the distribution of plants over the most 
widely separated regions of the globe, is one of deep interest, 
and tends most clearly to establish the fact of unity of design 
and operation in the works of the Creator. The remarkable 
resemblance of plants in similar latitudes with those at dif¬ 
ferent elevations on mountains, is another interesting subject 
of enquiry, and a corroboration of the grand unity of the whole. 
A most remarkable instance of this is found in the Lycopodium 
cernuum , (a widely distributed Fern in all warm climates,) it 
only grows in the Azores, around some hot springs; it has also 
been collected in St. Paul’s Island (lat. 38° S.), there, too, 
only by the side of similar springs. These facts are most 
remarkable, for the Lycopodium cernuum does not inhabit 
Madeira or any spot in the Azores, except the vicinity of 
the hot springs; and St. Paul’s Island is also far beyond its 
natural isothermal in that longitude of the southern hemis¬ 
phere. It is also to be remarked, that in neither island is the 
* The magnetic centres now found to exist, may have a mysterious connection 
with the formation of botanic centres 
