REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 55 



Of the sixty-five species in the foregoing table, twenty-seven are vascular cryptogams, 

 one of which is arboreous ; and of the thirty-eight flowering plants, twenty are shrubs or 

 small trees. The trees are all small, and some of them mere miniatures of trees ; still they 

 are called trees because they are not bushy. 



With one exception, Scirpus nodosus (Fimbristylis textilis), the thirty-eight flowering 

 plants are not only indigenous, but likewise endemic, having never been found in any 

 other part of the world. The solitary exception has been admitted, because Roxburgh and 

 other botanists who have visited the island have regarded it as one of the native plants. 

 Out of twenty-seven vascular cryptogams, twelve are endemic — a proportion that is barely 

 exceeded in an eminently fern flora like that of New Zealand. 



The twenty-four probably indigenous species, or such as may have reached the island 

 independently of human agency, are : — 



Senebiera heleniana, Portulaca oleracea, Oxalis corniculata, Psoralea pinnata, Cotula 

 coronopifolia, Ipomcea hiloba, Dichondra repens, Boerhaavia verticillata, Suceda fruticosa, 

 Exomls axyrioides, Euphorbia, sp., Lemna minor, Juncus bufonius, Juncus lomatophyllus, 

 Cyperus distans, Cyperus umbellatus, Cyperus Icevigatus, Cyperus polystachyus, Cyperus 

 difformis, Cyperus rotund us, Cyperus eragrostis, Kyllinga monocephala, Scirpus setaceus, 

 ;uid Sporobolus indicus. 



So far as some of the foregoing plants are concerned, the probabilities as to their being 

 indigenous or introduced are pretty evenly balanced, while in other cases they preponderate 

 against their being indigenous. 



It has already been stated that the indigenous element of the present vegetation is now 

 practically limited to, or at least only a prominent feature in it. high up in the Central 

 Eidge ; and this general statement needs very little qualification even if used in a more 

 extended sense, as may be gathered from the remarks under each species. Still, in spite 

 of the great rarity of many of the native species, fewer have disappeared altogether than 

 might at first be supposed. By diligent search, Melliss rediscovered several that had been 

 given up as wholly lost; and we have positive evidence of the absolute extinction of only 

 two, namely, Melhania melanoxylon and Acalypha rubra, though the presumptive evidence 

 is strong as to other two — Heliotropium pannifolium and Demazeria oblitera. How 

 many were extirpated by the goats before the flora was investigated we shall never know : 

 it may have been considerable, but judging from the facts before us and the characteristic 

 poverty in species of insular floras generally, we should think not. Assuming that a 

 portion of the flora has been lost, the remnant may be regarded as a representative sample 

 of the whole. 



The following extracts from Melliss's St Helena give a good idea of the condition of the 

 indigenous vegetation during his residence in the island down to 1875 : — 



" The green vegetation once seen clothing the island to the water's edge, was doubtless, with some 

 lost species, Ebony (Melhania melanoxylon), Scrubwood (Cornmklcndron rugosum), Franhnia, Mellissia, 



