INTRODUCTION TO THE REPORTS ON INSULAR FLORAS. 65 



Name. Distribution. 



FlLICES. 



Aspidium aculeatum, Swartz, var. vestitum, Hook. . This variety is found in New Zealand, Australia, 



Tasmania, and Fuegia. 



Pohjpodium australe, Mett General in south temperate zone. 



Lomaria alpitia, Spreng. ..... South temperate zone, including the islands of the 



Southern Indian Ocean, though hitherto not recorded 

 from the Auckland and Campbell Islands. 



Besides the foregoing vascular plants, Dr Scott collected twenty-one species of cellular 

 cryptogams. Disregarding Poa annua, which Scott thinks may have been introduced, 

 as it was only found near one of the sealers' huts, there are eighteen vascular plants, 

 whereof twelve are also found in New Zealand, and of these two were previously only 

 known from New Zealand, and four only from New Zealand and the Auckland and 

 Campbell Islands ; while of the remaining six, three are only known to inhabit the Auck- 

 land, Campbell, and Macquariels lands ; one is restricted to these islands, the Crozets and 

 Kerguelen Islands ; finally, the genus Azorclla is not represented in New Zealand, or any 

 of the other adjacent islands. 



CONCLUDING EEMAEKS. 



Bermudas. — The composition of the flora of these islands so clearly indicates its 

 origin, and the means by which the majority of the species reached the islands are so 

 obvious, that it would be superfluous to adduce further evidence thereon ; but it may be 

 mentioned, in connection therewith, that there is a much greater overlapping of the 

 West Indian flora in South Florida than was formerly supposed. Many of the indigenous 

 Bermudan plants are very rare ; some probably through cultivation ; others, perhaps, on 

 account of beino; late arrivals. 



o 



Fernando-Noronha. — As the main island of this group is still botanically almost 

 unknown, it is impossible to say whether there be any generic endemic element, though 

 from the sample of the flora collected in the adjacent islets by Mr Moseley, it is not 

 probable that any exists. Associated with a number of very common plants, are a few 

 apparently endemic species of common American genera. The most noteworthy point in 

 connection with the vegetation is the apparent total absence of ferns and mosses. 



Ascension. — Whether this island ever supported anything more than its present 

 extremely meagre flora is problematical ; but the presence of two distinct endemic species 

 of flowering plants belonging to widely diffused genera, is no help to the solution of the 

 problem. The one, Hedyotis adscensonis, is not very different from African and Asiatic 

 species ; and the other, Euphorbia origanoides, belongs to a group of littoral, mostly 

 shrubby species, widely spread in Polynesia, with one species in the West Indies and the 



