158 MR, W. B. HEMSLEY ON THE FLORA 
Tue Frora oF THE Tones or Frrenpuy Isnanps, with Descrip- 
tions of and Notes on some New or Remarkable Plants, 
partly from the Solomon Islands. By W. Borriya Hemstey, 
A.LS., F.R.S. (Contributed by permission of the Director 
of the Royal Gardens, Kew.) 
[Read Ist June, 1895. ] 
(Puates IX.-XT.) 
1. Introductory Note on the Tonga Flora. 
AurnovueH I have drawn up as complete a list as I could of the 
vascular plants hitherto collected in the Tonga Islands, the few 
preliminary observations I have to make on the flora of that 
group relate chiefly to a collection of dried plants, mostly from 
the island of Eua, made by Mr. J. J. Lister during the years 
1889 and 1890. As Mr. Lister is present and has promised to 
give you some particulars of the position and composition of the 
islands, and of the local conditions under which plant-life exists*, ° 
it will be sufficient for me to point out that the Tonga Islands 
lie a little south-east of Fiji, that Eua lies to the south-east of 
the comparatively very low (about sixty feet in its highest part) 
though much larger island of Tongatabou, and that it has a 
central ridge of high ground which attains a height of upwards 
of 1000 feet above the level of the sea. Tongatabou was touched, 
I believe, by Cook on all three voyages, for there are Tongan 
plants in the British Museum collected by Banks and Solander, 
by Forster, and by Nelson. Various other expeditions have 
touched there, including Wilkes’s United States and the ‘ Chal- 
lenger’ expeditions ; and as the late Professor Moseley’s collec- 
tion made there on the voyage of the ‘ Challenger’ has not been 
published, I propose including it in the Enumeration which 
follows these observations. 
The vegetation of Eua differs from that of Tongatabou in 
having some peculiar species, at least so far as our present data 
go; and it also includes a considerable number of Polynesian 
forms not found in the low coral islands. The violaceous Meli- 
cytus ramiflorus is one of the most interesting plants found in 
Eua by Mr. Lister. It is a common New Zealand shrub or 
* Mr. Lister has kindly communicated the substance of his remarks, which 
will follow my observations on the flora. 
