INTRODUCTION TO TIIE REPORTS ON INSULAR FLORAS. 



25 



Africa. 



Name. 



Vernonia, various species 

 Titrclwnanthus camphoratus 

 Brachyleena discolor 

 Senecio, various species 



Name. 

 Vernonia, various species 



Name. 

 Vanillosmopsis arborea 

 Vernonia, various species 

 Piptocarpha axillaris . 

 „ rnacropoda 



,, rotundifolia 



Lylmophora, various species 

 Eremanthus incanus 

 Stifftia, various species 

 Eupatorium angulicaule 

 Espeletia nerii folia 

 Munianoa excelsa 



,, moritziana . 



Suborder. 

 Vernoniaceae 

 Inuloideae . 



Senecionideae 



India. 



Suborder. 



Vernoniaceae 



South America. 



Suborder. 



Vernoniaceae 



Mutisiaceae . 

 Eupatoriaceae 

 Ilelianthoideae 



Some particulars respecting continental counterparts of the insular arboreous genera 

 belonging to other orders are given in Part III., p. 23 ;. and a few pages forward is a 

 paragraph on the woody plants of oceanic islands. 



LARGE AND ALMOST UBIQUITOUS NATURAL ORDERS ABSENT OR VERY 



RARE IN OCEANIC ISLANDS. 



In spite of the fact that there is a relatively large ordinal and generic element in 

 Oceanic Floras, it is not surprising that many large and widely spread orders are wholly 

 unrepresented in consequence of the small areas involved ; still the total absence, or great 

 rarity, of certain almost ubiquitous orders is remarkable and not easily explained. Thus 

 the Leguminosse, which in numbers stand next to the Composite, and reach the utmost 

 limits of phanerogamic vegetation, both latitudinal and altitudinal, are wanting in a large 

 number of oceanic islands where there is no truly littoral flora. In St Helena, for 

 example, there is not a single certainly indigenous species. It is true, Melliss hazards the 

 assertion respecting Psoralea pinnata that "doubtless this plant existed in the island on 

 its discovery," and Roxburgh classes it as indigenous ; but Forster, who botanised the 

 island about a quarter of a century before the latter, records only Psoralea aphylla, a very 

 distinct species from Psoralea pinnata, and remarks that it was probably introduced. 



