ON FITCHIA, A NEW GENUS OF COMPOSITÆ. 64l 
datis. Pollen globosum, echinulatum. Stylus elongatus, 
filiformis, superne tetragonus, scaberulus, apice contracto 
brevissime bicruri, ramis divergentibus. Achenium vacuum, 
lineari-oblongum, basi apiceque truncatum, dense sericeo- pi- 
losum antice obscure carinatum. Pappus bisetosus, setis 2 
validis hispido-pilosis corolla brevioribus. 
À very noble plant, belonging to a new genus which will 
rank next to Rea of Bertero and Decaisne. I have named it 
in honour of one who is well known as a most accurate and 
elegant Botanical artist, Mr. Walter Fitch, to whose pencil 
are due the plates of this work, of the Icones Plantarum, of 
the last twelve volumes of the Botanical Magazine, and of the 
greater part of the Flora Antarctica. 
Arborescent Composite, belonging to genera wholly dif- 
fering from those found on continents, often occur in 
insular positions, and at once give a character to the 
landscape and to the Botany of the island they inhabit. 
This remark applies invariably to islands whose other ve- 
getation differs from that of the neighbouring lands ; and also, 
in a certain degree, to isolated spots, where the Botany is not 
of such a confined nature. Thus, in St. Helena, of which the 
entire Flora is specifically different from that of either Africa or 
America, the Composite are invariably frutescent or arbores- 
cent, belonging to 4 genera, all confined to the island, and 
together containing 10 species. New Zealand probably ranks, 
SO far as we at present know, next to St. Helena in pecu- 
liarity, though from its size it partakes of a continental vege- 
fation in the number of its genera, those of Composite 
amount probably to 30, including 60 species ; the arborescent 
are 8, with nearly 14 species, the latter all restricted to New 
Zealand, as are 5 of the former. The island of Juan Fernandez 
exhibits but few peculiar genera, though the species are almost 
wholly unlike those of the neighbouring coast of Chili. As far 
as I have ascertained, the Composite there amount to 17, dis- 
tributed amongst 8 genera ; 3 of them, containing 12 species, 
are arborescent, and grow nowhere else. — = o 
~ The Galapago Islands have a very remarkable Flora, more 
