246 REV. R. BARON ON THE 
The Flora of Madagascar 
By the Rev. Rrcmarp BARON, F.L.S., F.G.S. 
[Read 1st November, 1888.] 
(With Mar.) 
Ir may now be said with perfect truth that the vegetable pro- 
ductions of Madagascar have been, though not thoroughly, very 
extensively explored, and that the majority of the plants inha- 
biting the island are known to science. The country has been 
traversed by botanists in many different directions, its highest 
mountains have been ascended, its lakes and marshes crossed, its 
forests penetrated, and large collections of plants have been made 
from time to time, whieh have been examined and described in 
various publications. Our knowledge of the flora of Madagascar 
is due, in the first instance, to the labours of Flacourt, Dupetit 
Thouars, Commerson, Chapelier, Bernier, Lantz, Boivin, Pervillé, 
De Lastelle, Richard, Grevé, Hilsenberg, Bojer, Goudot, Bréon, 
Vesco, Grandidier, Thompson, Lyall, Ellis, and others, most of 
whom collected plants chiefly in the east, north, and north-west 7 
parts of the island. M. Grevé, however, gathered many, if not 
al, of his specimens on the south-west coast; while Messrs. 
Hilsenberg, Bojer, Lyall, and Ellis explored the botanical treasures 
of the eastern forests and the central highlands. 
Within the last few years our knowledge of the flora of the 
island has been very materially inereased ; so that, whereas until 
recently less than 2000 species of plants were known, there are 
now [1889] named and described about 4100, though many of 
these will doubtless prove repetitions when they are properly 
compared and worked out. Dr. Rutenberg, who, in the year 
1878, was probably murdered in Western Madagascar, and Dr. 
Hildebrandt, who died in Antananarivo in 1881, made extensive 
botanical collections, chiefly in the north-west and central parts 
of the country. Mr. Borgen, of the Norwegian Missionary 
Society, gathered, a few years ago, a valuable series of mosses, 
chiefly, if not entirely, on Ankaratra Mountain in Imerina. Miss 
Gilpin, of the Friends' Foreign Mission Association, and Mrs. 
Pool, of the London Missionary Society, have largely added to 
our knowledge of the fern-flora of the interior, especially of the 
forests; and Dr. Fox, of the Friends’ Foreign Mission Association, 
has materially increased our knowledge of the orchids of Imerina. 
M. Humblot has recently explored the large forest in the north- 
