356 



LETTER FROiM MR. MACGILLIVRAY. 



cane were cultivated. ... The French "Missionary" establishment is 

 pleasantly situated in an open valley at the edge of the table-land, with 

 a stream from the upper grounds running past, and suppljdng a swamp 

 lower down, where I found several marsh-plants. On the banks of the 

 stream further up I observed several fine Ferns, especially a Lomaria 

 (like Z. rohusta of Tristan da Cunha), with an arborescent caudex three 

 or four feet high, and as thick as one's le^^, and having a fine head of 

 long fronds, arching outwards, giving the plant much the appearance 

 of a dwarf Palm, A Lygodium spread its green drapery over the trees 

 and bushes on the outskirts of the wood- a fine Lindscea and an Adi- 

 antiim grew by the stream, along which, here and there, were great 

 clumps of a gigantic grass, with leaves a foot in width. . . . The total 

 number of flowering plants collected by me at the Isle of Pines is 137 ; 

 and from the circumstance of my last two excursions not having fur- 

 nished a single additional species, it may be inferred that the small 

 collection in question affords a fair sample of the vegetation of the 

 island. Among Cryptogamia, Algce are very remarkably deficient; of 

 Fungi and Lichens I did not observe more than a dozen species ; and 

 of Mosses only five kinds. The LTjcopodiacece are only two in number, 

 but the Ferns are well represented by twenty-four species belonging to 

 sixteen genera. Several of the most striking of these have already been 

 alluded to in this journal. By far the most remarkable are two species 

 of a genus {ScJdzcea, Ed.) which I cannot find described. The frond of 

 one is linear and rush-like, of the other dichotomous and flabelliform. 

 The latter bears on the apex of each division of the frond about six 

 minute recurved spikes (collectively assuming a stellate appearance), each 

 with two rows of exannulate capsular spore-cases, corrugated at the apex, 

 dehiscing vertically, and containing two or more discoid sporangia. 

 These two last Ferns, on my subsequent return to Sydney, were re- 

 ferred to the genus Aciiriostachjs*. The Graminece, of which there are 

 several striking forms, constitute 16 per cent, of the Ph^nogamous ve- 

 getation ; and the Cy^eracece, Compositce, and Leguniinosa, respectively 

 6, 7, and 5 per cent. The great bulk of the vegetation is arboreal ; 

 and in the groves and woods there is little underwood, but often Tla- 



dica f 



Herbaceous plants occur 



* One of them is the Acfinostachj/s digitata, WaU. {Schizaa, Sw, et alior.). 



t There is a very remarkable new genus: with foliage and tfeneral habit of souic 

 ot the very broad-leaved Grasses, but with the flowers, and apparently fruit, " "" 

 gdJaina;—u, 770 of Mr. Maegillivray's collection, m. 172 of Mr. Milne's: 



climber. 



of Fla- 

 not a 



