INTRODUCTION" TO THE REPORTS ON INSULAR FLORAS. 



19 



speciosa, Cerbera odollam, Solanum sp., Achyranthes sp., Broussonetia papyri/era, and a 

 few common grasses. We also learn from Beechey's narrative that the Ti (Cordyline sp.) 

 grew there ; and in a view of the interior of the island in the same work, a large fig-tree 

 is represented amidst cocoa-nut palms. 



EXAMINATION OF SOME OF THE SPECIAL FEATURES OF 



INSULAR FLORAS. 



ENDEMIC ARBOREOUS AND SHRUBBY COMPOSITE IN OCEANIC ISLANDS. 1 



The Sandwich Islands. 



Few of the woody Composite of the Sandwich Islands are really arboreous in habit 

 and stature, the majority being shrubs, some of them of quite small dimensions. Rail- 

 lardia arborea, A. Gr., and Hesperomannia arborescens, A. Gr., are, however, really 

 arboreous, having trunks twenty feet high. The latter is remarkable as the only member 

 of the Mutisiacese found in Polynesia proper. Mann states in his Catalogue of the Plants 

 of the Sandwich Islands that only one tree was seen, and that on the summit of Lanai, 

 at about 2500 feet elevation ; but Wawra has since collected it sparingly on Waianee 

 in Oahu. 



The Galapagos Islands. 



Mr Bentham states (loc. infr. cit, p. 537) that none of the Galapagos Composita? show 

 any tendency to the arborescent forms observable in the more isolated insular groups ; this, 



It is the only one with pinnate leaves, and is thus of very different aspect from the Andine species. Besides 

 Cuming's Pitcairn Island specimen, and numerous specimens from the Sandwich Islands, there are in the Kew 

 Herbarium two or three from the Bonin Islands, and one from Maingaia (ahout 157° "W. long., and 22° S. lat.), 

 so that it practically ranges across the Pacific. The haw-like fruit is described as being of a pleasant flavour. 



1 Compiled largely from Mr Bentham's Notes on the Classification, History, and Geographical Distribution 

 of the Compositas, with particulars of their dimensions from various sources : Journal of the Linnean Society of 

 London, xiii. pp. 554—568. 



