20 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



however, as we have explained on p. 11, is hardly correct, for Andersson describes Macrcea 

 laricifolia, Hook. f. (Lipochceta, A. Gr., Helianthoideae), as "fere biorgyalis," and Scalesia 

 decurrens, Anders. (Helianthoideae), as " bi-triorgyalis " — dimensions exceeded by only a 

 small proportion of the woody Compositse in other oceanic islands. There are, according 

 to Andersson, fifteen bushy Composite in the Galapagos, several of them reaching a height 

 of eight to ten ells. 



■■■»' 



The Islands of the South Pacific. 



The islands of the South Pacific, from the Fijis to the Marquesas, are exceedingly poor 

 in Compositae, and the only genus of special interest is Fitchia (Helianthoideae), concerning 

 which Bentham (loc. cit., p. 558) says: "Lastly, there is the very remarkable Fitchia, 

 found once only, I believe, in each of two different South Sea Islands, 1 and systematically 

 connected with none but the Juan Fernandez Dendroseris. 2 Of the whole nineteen or 

 twenty Compositae [in the South Pacific Islands] this will probably prove to be the only 

 one presenting a remnant of the ancient flora, the only exception to the more or less 

 adventitious character of the South Pacific Compositae." 



Fitchia nutans, Hook, f., is a veritable tree, attaining a height of twenty-five feet. 



1 It is doubtful whether Fitchia was collected in Elizabeth Island by Cuming, upon whose specimen, thus 

 labelled, the genus was founded (Hooker's London Journal of Bota?ii/,iv., 1845, p. G40, t. 23). The label, it is 

 true, bears the name of this island ; but we doubt its correctness, because in a manuscript list, of which there 

 are two copies in the Kew library, there is no Compositae among the numbers included under Elizabeth Island. 

 The number 1424, attached to both the Benthamian and Hookerian specimens of Fitchia nutans in the Kew 

 Herbarium, is in Cuming's list under Toubouia or Tubai Island, some twenty-two degrees west of Elizabeth 

 Island. Whether it- was actually collected in the last-named island or in Tahiti, where Cuming also collected 

 on the same voyage, is a little uncertain, inasmuch as it has since, as far as we are aware, only been collected in 

 Tahiti. Seemann (Flora Vitiensis, p. 109) questions the accuracy of Cuming's Elizabeth Island locality. 



2 The opposite leaves, paleaceous receptacle, and biaristate achenes point to the Helianthoideae rather than the 

 Cichoriaceae, in spite of all the florets being ligulate. By some mischance the generic character in Bentham and 

 Hooker's Genera Plantarum is incorrect and contradictory in some particulars. Nadeaud (Enumeration des Plantes 

 Indigenes de l'He de Tahiti, p. 49), seems to have had copious specimens under observation, and he expresses 

 the same opinion, in which, he says, he was supported by the eminent botanist, Mr J. E. Planchon, to whom he 

 showed his specimens. Nadeaud suggests the vicinity of Bidens, or Wedelia and Wollastonia, as the systematic 

 position of Fitchia; but apart from its habit and ligulate flowers it is not materially different from the St 

 Helena helianthoid Petrobium arboreum, R. Br. (Bidens arborea, Roxb.), and certainly nearer to it than the 

 other genera named. 



A second species (Fitchia taltitiensis)*ix described by Nadeaud. It is a shrub .six to twelve feet high, grow- 

 ing in large clumps in various parts of the island, at elevations of between 800 and 1000 metres. And with 

 regard to Fitchia nutans, he states that it is spread over nearly all the high summits of the island above an 

 elevation of a thousand metres. This deserves repeating, because the prevalent idea is that this tree is extremely 

 rare. Professor Dana, of the United States South Pacific Exploring Expedition, collected a single specimen of 

 it, according to Gray (Proc. Amer. Acad., v. p. 146), in the mountains of Tahiti, though its rarity is not adduced 

 as the reason. Mr Moseley, however, on a label attached to a specimen in the Kew Herbarium, collected by 

 him in the same island at an altitude of about 4000 feet, states that only one tree was seen, and that was 

 about twenty-five feet high, with a stem nine inches in diameter. 



