EECAPITULATION OF THE DOMINANT FEATURES OF THE FLOEA. 313 



The southern floral province, comprising Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, 

 exhibits much closer relationships with the South-American tropical flora, and may 

 be of more recent derivation; but the large number of South- American types (see 

 pi 227) which reach Mexico or Guatemala, and not the West Indies, indicate a more 

 remote connection, though of course it may not have been continuous. The vegetation 

 of no part of this province, except perhaps the Panama railway route, has been very 

 thoroughly investigated, yet there are fairly good samples of the flora in herbaria 

 from various parts, including the principal peaks, from the Volcan de Chiriqui to 

 Volcan el Viejo in North-western Nicaragua. (Ersted's Costa-Rica collections, as 

 already mentioned, have only been elaborated in part; but among those published 

 are the Leguminosse with 90 species ; Melastomacese, 23 ; Rubiaceae, 60 ; CompositEe, 

 101; Gesneracese, 62; Orchidese, 198; and Palmse, 37. Nominally they contain a 

 large percentage of endemic species, which a critical examination of the whole of the 

 materials of the same orders from South America would probably considerably reduce. 

 The low percentage of the endemic generic element in the vegetation of the whole of 

 Mexico and Central America has been commented on (p. 211) ; and it may be repeated 

 that the southern floral province is by far the poorest of the three provinces ; only 

 thirteen, so far as is known, being restricted to it. What the total number of genera 

 of vascular plants recorded for the whole province is we have not ascertained ; but 

 there are 497 in Nicaragua, 451 in Costa Rica, and 697 in Panama ; and the species 

 are respectively 984, 1140, and 1556. No fewer than 1108 species count as endemic 

 in this province, giving a much higher ratio than in either of the other provinces ; yet, 

 as just remarked, we strongly doubt these being the true proportions. Quite a small 

 number of the Panama plants collected by Seemann, the whole of which we have had 

 an opportunity of examining, proved endemic ; and the additions thereto by Hayes 

 yielded no greater percentage. The plants from Costa Rica and Nicaragua have only 

 in part been submitted to the same test ; but even taking into account the difference 

 in position and the greater development of the mountain chain in Costa Rica, such an 

 enormous accession to the specific endemic element is to be discredited. Indeed in 

 some orders, the Acanthacese for example, many of (Ersted's species are clearly spurious. 



Of a flora concerning which our knowledge is so imperfect little can be profitably 

 said about the apparent absence of certain types, yet it may be mentioned that 

 Cheirostemon is not known to extend into this province, or it would most certainly 

 have been mentioned by travellers; but, what is more inexplicable, there is no 

 record of the existence of any Fuchsia*. The relationships of the flora, however, 



* Since this was written we have seen a specimen of the Guatemalan Fuchsia bacillaris, from Costa Rica, 

 collected by Dr. O. Kuntze, and we find that Seemann records F. microphylla from Chiriqui (Bot. Voy. 

 * Herald/ p. 120) ; hut there is no specimen either in the first set of his collection at Kew or in the second set 

 at the British Museum. Assuming this record to he correct, the fact remains that this genus, so numerously 

 represented in South America and Colombia, is rare in the intermediate region. Only one species of Fuchsia 

 has been found in the West Indies, and that in St. Domingo ; it is F. triphylla (see Botanical Magazine, 

 cxi. t. 6795). 



