354 LETTEK FROM MR. MACGILLIVRAY. 



ing the generic cliaracters, but it strongly reminds me of what seveyal 

 years ago I made out by Brown's * Prodromus/ etc., to be SeafortJua 

 elegam. Here and there is an occasional enormous Banyan-tree, ,with 

 its singular root-like supporting stems, and some plants of a Pandamts 

 (Freycinetia, I think, but here again the want of botanical works steps 

 in), or "tent-tree," as it is here called. My old friend, Flagellaria 

 Indicay as usual, is not tied down to the quiet orderly growth of its 

 fellows in the vegetable kingdom, but aspires to paying rambling visits 

 to the summits of the neighbouring trees. What with this, and the 

 Palms, and the Banyans, and the Screw-pines, and the clumps of para- 

 sitical Orc}iide(2 and Ferns, the forest scenery struck nie as having quite 

 a tropical aspect; and wlien, after passing some cleared land in a neg- 

 lected state, overrun with weeds (among which were the ubiquitous 

 Stellaria media and SoncJuis oleraceus), and some patches of rude culti- 

 vation, we came in sight of the establishment of one of the settlers, 

 the palm-slab built and palm-leaf thatched cottage and outhouses re- 

 minded me of a Malayan or Javanese hamlet. . . . Sevei*al species of 

 Perns occurred here. Besides a CyatJieUy with a caudex ten or twelve 

 feet in length and six inches in diameter, a very handsome Hypolepis, 

 a Pterisy a LitobrocTiia^ and a widely-spreading ^splemttniy with fronds 

 six feet ift length, were plentiful. ■ A long straggling Polypodium^ and 

 a Pleopeltis, ran over rocks and up the trunks of trees. We saw enor- 

 mous clumps of a Platycermmy high up on the Banyans, and got fine 

 specimens from a tree which had been blown down. Along with the 

 Perns were some fine Lichens, and a beautiful Moss {Weissia), which 

 had not occurred previously. 



My little encampment was broken up sooner than I anticipated, and 

 we had to rejoin the ship, to our intense mortification, at a period when 

 the carrying out of my plans for the remainder of the time originally 

 allotted would have ensured a thorough investigation of the productions 

 of this interesting island. A quantity of seeds of "vegetables" were 

 distributed among the few settlers ; and on our subsequent visit (three 

 months afterwards), I was pleased to find, on the site where the tent 

 had been pitched, a crop of very fine turnips, the produce doubtless of 

 some seed which Milne had accidentally scattered there. 



On September 24 we anchored at the Isle of Pines, where we re- 

 mained a month. This island is situated off the S.E. end of New 

 Caledonia, and is peopled by a similar race of men — the frizzled-hair 



