210 MR. W. B. HEMSLEY ON THE FLORA 
this I will proceed to further details of the composition and cha- 
racter of the Polynesian flora. I have already stated that the 
most striking fact brought out by the preceding Table is the large 
proportion of species—upwards of a third—peculiar to Polynesia. 
Another fact, which does not come out, either in the Enumeration 
or in the Table, is the complete absence of peculiar generic types 
in the Tonga Islands ; and even if we include the Fiji and Navi- 
gator groups, the number is exceedingly small. Seemann (FI.Vit., 
Introd. p. xvii) could only adduce 16, and some of these were 
doubtful. Subsequent discoveries, especially in Malaya, have 
reduced that number, whilst the more complete exploration of 
Fiji has not resulted in the discovery, I believe, of a single new 
genus. And if we include the flora of the Gilbert, Phonix, 
Ellice and Union groups, the results would be practically the 
same. In Eastern Polynesia there is a larger proportion of 
endemic genera, but nothing approaching a natural order. Even 
in so highly specialized a flora as the Hawaiian, only about 40 
genera out of 250 are restricted to those islands, and they are 
perhaps more remarkable for habit than for floral structure. 
In the Society Islands there are very few endemic genera, or, 
going further, peculiarly Polynesian genera, and one of the most 
singular of these, Lepinia, as pointed out at p. 165, has recently 
been rediscovered so far westward as the Solomon Islands *. 
Returning to the peculiarly Polynesian species of the Tongan 
flora, we find that 55 have both an eastward and a westward 
extension ; 28 a westward extension only; 12 an eastward 
extension only; and 10, so far as at present known, are endemic. 
These are:—Canarium Harveyi, Vavea amicorum, Memecylon 
Harvey, Disemma c@rulescens, Ardisia Listeri, Bassia amicorwm, 
Solanum amicorum, Cyrtandra Listeri, Hedycarya alternifolia, 
and Wikstremia rotundifolia. But some of these may prove 
either to have a wider range or not to be specifically different 
when intermediate forms may have been found. On the other 
hand, it is not probable that unknown species remain to be 
discovered in these islands. 
* Drake del Castello, ‘ Flore de la Polynésie Francaise,’ Introduction, p. xix, 
tabulates the distribution of 588 species, belonging to 79 natural orders. His 
results are: 161 peculiar to French Polynesia (Society, Marquesas, Pomotou, 
Gambier, and Wallis Islands) ; 123 extending to Oceania ; 297 to Indo-Malaya ; 
and 7 to other regions. These figures are to some extent inaccurate, inasmuch 
as the full distribution is not always given, 
