li INTRODUCTION. 
Summary of the Flora of the Sandwich Islands. (After Hillebrand.) 
Species. 
| Gtanecton | introduction, | Eedemic. |] Original Total. 
Dicotyledones .........+.: 13 92 500 584. 689 
Monocotyledones ........ 11 23 74 121 155 
Phanerogamia .......... ' 94 115 574 105 844 
Cryptogamia Vasculares.... 0 0 79 155 155 
Totals ..........00.0 000s 24 115 653 860 999 
The 860 species of vascular plants regarded as indigenous belong to 265 genera, 
being as 3:25 tol, or about half that in large continental areas such as Mexico, 
Australia, and British India. Notwithstanding this low average number of species to a 
genus, the most striking feature in the flora is the large number of species of many of the 
endemic genera. Thus, Schiedea (Caryophyllacez), 17; Kadua (Rubiaceze), 13; Cler- 
montia (Campanulacee), 11; Cyanea (Campanulacee), 28 ; and Stenogyne (Labiatz), 17. 
Further the Polynesian genera Pelea (Rutaceze) and Phyllostegia (Labiate) are repre- 
sented by 20 and 16 species respectively, and Cyrtandra by 29 species*. Of the 
indigenous species 81:4 per cent. are endemic—a proportion exceeded in no other Flora 
of the same extent, perhaps, except that of West Australia, in which it is 85 per cent. 
Ninety-five orders of Phanerogamia are represented; and the proportion of Mono- 
cotyledones to Dicotyledones is as 1 to 4°8, or higher than might have been expected ; 
but the former consist largely of Glumifere, petaloid monocots being rare, and orchids | 
are represented by only three terrestrial genera, and one endemic species of each 
genus. 
The question arises whether any of the other islands or groups of islands in the Pacific 
can appropriately be associated with the Sandwich Islands. 'The connection with the 
other Pacific islands beyond the sea-coast and Australian elements is so very slight that 
the Sandwich Islands stand almost completely isolated. Nadeaud f describes a plant 
from Tahiti which he refers to Phyllostegia, otherwise exclusively belonging to the 
Sandwich Islands; Sclerotheca arborea (Campanulacez), also a native of the Society 
Islands, is said to be more nearly related to the American genus Siphocampylus than it 
is to the endemic genera of the Sandwich Islands}; Litchia, the only genus of Compo- 
* Thirty-two according to Clarke’s monograph, overlooked by Hillebrand. 
t Enumération des Plantes Indigéne de I’Ile de Tahiti, p. 56. 
t Bentham and Hooker, Gen. Pl. ii. p. 548. 
