312 MR. W. B. HEMSLEY ON THE 
Apparently it is very rare, having been found “ only in one place, on a patch 
of eoralline limestone, about three-quarters of a mile from the sea, at the 
west end of the island, close to where //ypoestes inconspicua, Balt. fil., and 
Dichondra repens, Forst., were found.” 
The next phase in the history of JVesogenes is the discovery of the existence 
of other species in the region of №. decumbens. As circumstances have per- 
mitted since my retirement from Kew in 1908, I have studied the botanical 
collections of the ‘Sealark’ Expedition made by Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner 
and Mr. J. C. F. Fryer, in Seychelles and Aldabra, in 1905, and those made 
in the same islands by the Hon. H. P. Thomasset, of Mahé, Seychelles, and 
Mr. P. R. Dupont, Curator of the Botanie Station in the same island. Among 
these plants is one, or possibly two, species of Nesogenes from Aldabra and 
Assumption, coral islands situated some 200 miles to the north-west of 
Madagascar, in about 10° S. lat. Judging by appearance only, I at first 
sorted the specimens into the Галаба, but on examining the flowers I found 
they belonged to the Verbenaces. When naming the Scrophulariaces: I 
looked eursorily at Аата, and these specimens of Vesogenes recalled to 
my mind similarity in habit. On comparison I discovered that Габала 
prostrata is indeed a species of Nesoyenes. In view of the fact that endemie 
plants are exceedingly rare in atolls, the affinities and distribution of the 
species of .Vesogenes are points of great interest. In this connection I may 
mention that the vegetation of Aldabra is by far richer than that of any other 
atoll with which I am acquainted and includes a considerable number of 
species hitherto apparently undescribed or unknown elsewhere. Nevertheless, 
judging from the composition of the vegetation of atolls generally, and 
considering that the flora of Madagascar is still far from having been 
exhaustively investigated, I strongly doubt the existence of a real endemic 
element in the vegetation of Aldabra. In making this comparison I exclude 
the flora of the Bermudas, because I do not think it belongs to the same 
rategory. But even of that flora the endemic element is very small and very 
slightly differentiated. The tact that the Laceadive, Maldive, and Chagos 
archipelagos of the Indian Ocean contain no endemic plants, if we exclude a 
doubtful fern, supports this view. 
The genus .Vesogenes presents no striking characteristics. It consists of 
small, slender, procumbent or erect herbs or undershrubs with opposite leaves, 
mostly less than an inch in length, and axillary, inconspicuous flowers less 
than half-an-inch long. In habit and general appearance the plants resemble 
some species of /uphrasia and Buchnera in Scrophulariacese rather than 
characteristic Verbenacee. The genus is placed in the tribe Chloantheze by 
Зепіћат & Hooker, ‘Genera Plantarum, ii. 1141, between Spartothamnas, 
an Australian. shrubby monotype, and cleharitea (probably derived from 
&xapis, wanting in grace or beauty), a very slender herbaceous monotype 
