ive and masterly essay on the flora of Australia,
says:--"Under whatever aspect I regard the flora of Australia and of New
Zealand, I find all attempts to theorise on the possible causes of their
community of feature frustrated by anomalies in distribution, such as I
believe no two other similarly situated countries in the globe present.
Everywhere else I recognise a parallelism or harmony in the main common
features of contiguous floras, which conveys the impression of their
generic affinity, at least, being affected by migration from centres of
dispersion in one of them, or in some adjacent country. In this case it is
widely different. Regarding the question from the Australian point of view,
it is impossible in the present state of science to reconcile the fact of
Acacia, Eucalyptus, Casuarina, Callitris, &c., being absent in New Zealand,
with any theory of transoceanic migration that may be adopted to explain
the presence of other Australian plants in New Zealand; and it is very
difficult to conceive of a time or of conditions that could explain these
anomalies, except by going back to epochs when the prevalent botanical as
well as geographical features of each were widely different from what they
are now. On the other hand, if I regard the question from the New Zealand
point of view, I find such broad features of resemblance, and so many
connecting links that afford irresistible evidence of a close botanical
connection, that I cannot abandon the conviction that these great
differences will present the least difficulties to whatever theory may
explain the whole case." I will now state, as briefly as possible, what are
the facts above referred to as being of so anomalous a character, and there
is little difficulty in doing so, as we have them fully set forth, with
admirable clearness, in the essay above alluded to, and in the same
writer's _Introduction to the Flora of New Zealand_, only requiring some
slight modifications, owing to the later discoveries which are given in the
_Handbook of the New Zealand Flora_.

Confining ourselves always to flowering plants, we find that the flora of
New Zealand is a very poor one, considering the extent of surface, and the
favourable conditions of {489} soil and climate. It consists of 1,085
species (our own islands possessing about 1,500), but a very large
proportion of these are peculiar, there being no less than 800 endemic
species, and thirty-two endemic genera.

Out of the 2