164 MB. H. TBIMEK ON BOEA COMMEKSONII. 



4 



confirming his opinion, Mr. Walter's plant differing only m 

 its smaller and thicker leaves, much more densely silvery hairy, 

 and with the veins somewhat broader and more prominent 

 beneath. 



It thus appeared that we had here a striking example of 

 a plant found, as far as yet known, only on two small islands 

 separated by one third of the circumference of the globe, though 

 lying in almost the same parallel of latitude (about 4° S.). A 

 little examination, however, shows that we have been in error in 

 considering the plant a native of the Seychelles, and that in all 

 probability the spot where Commerson found it was in fact very 

 near that in which it has been just collected. 



Bougainville's ship ■ La Boudeuse ' arrived at the island of 

 New Ireland in July 1768, and, anchoring in St. George's Channel 

 at Port Carteret (so named from the discoverer of the island in 

 the previous year), stayed there in all eighteen days. On July 

 13th they visited a small bay close to the south-west corner of 

 the island, and there observed the longitude, and witnessed an 

 eclipse of the sun. This little bay, protected by a small islet 

 (I. aux Marteaux, now Wallis I.), was named by the expedition 

 Port Praslin*, an appellation which it still retains. There is 

 every probability that this is the "Portus Praslinise " of Com- 

 merson, where his Boea was discoveredf, and that now after the 

 lapse of more than a century the little plant has been again 

 found within a few miles of this spot J. 



In Brown's published definition of the genus the corolla is 

 described as " bilabiata, tubo calycem vix sequante ; " and this is 

 repeated in the ' Prodromus.' Baron v. Mueller was on this 

 account doubtful whether the plant from the Duke-of- York's 

 Island could be certainly the same, as in it the corolla is divided 

 nearly to the base into two lips, without any tube, the lower lip 

 being quadrate cuneate, with three short blunt teeth, and not 

 deeply three-lobed. Why Brown should have given the above 

 character to the corolla in his published account is not obvious ; 



* ' Voyage autour du Monde/ (Paris, 1771) pp. 273-279 and pi. 14. 



t There is yet another Port Praslin, on the N.E. coast of Santa Isabella 

 island, one of the Solomon archipelago, lying to the S.W. of the New Ireland 

 group. This bay contains numerous wooded islets. 



J The years do not correspond ; but, in copying, "Julio 1768" may readily 

 have become altered into " Julio 1766." Indeed the latter cannot be correct, 

 as the expedition did not start till the following year. 



