REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE ISLANDS OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 139 



enumerated by Thouars, except one, Phalaris cespitosa, and this we have been unable 

 to identify with any of the plants in the collections which we have examined, though, 

 according to Thouars, it alone covered large spaces of ground. 



The additional plants are — Ranunculus sp., Cardamine propinqua, Convolvulus sp., 

 Atriplex plebeja, Agrostis ramulosa, Agrostis media, Lycopodium two species, Tricho- 

 ma nes angustatum (t cue rum), Ptcris incisa, Asplenium monanthemum, Asplenium 

 medium, Polypodium australe, and Ophioglossum vulgatum. 



Several of the foregoing plants are noteworthy for different reasons. Thus the 

 Ranunculus, which is possibly the Kerguelen Ranunculus biternata, and the two endemic 

 species of Agrostis, which appear to be most nearly related to our Agrostis delislei from 

 Amsterdam Island, afford additional evidence of the common origin of the vegetation of 

 these southern islands. Then there is the Atriplex which Carmichael says grows along 

 the shore, and seems to be almost a stranger on the island. This has not been identified 

 with anything else ; therefore we are obliged to regard it as endemic, though we strongly 

 suspect it may yet turn out to be an introduced plant. It is in no other collection that 

 has come under our notice. Out of the six additional ferns, one, Asplenium medium, is 

 endemic, and a well-marked species. 



The next collection in point of date is that made by MacGillivray and Milne, naturalist 

 and assistant naturalist respectively to the expedition of H.M.S. "Herald" to examine 

 the Fiji and other Polynesian Islands, under the command of Captain Denham. This 

 collection was made in November 1852, and consists of about forty species of vascular 

 plants, besides a few undetermined specimens of Musci and Hepaticse, without fructi- 

 fication. It contains no species that does not occur in other collections, and as nothing 

 has been published concerning it by the collectors themselves, it calls for no further 

 remark in this place. 



Lastly, there are the collections of the Challenger Expedition, which, as has already 

 been mentioned, include the plants of all three islands of the group. 



These collections were made in October, so that the main island has been botanised 

 by different travellers from October to March ; and we may assume that its flora has 

 been fully exhausted, at least as far as the vascular plants are concerned. AVithout 

 counting the cellular cryptogams, Mr Moseley collected forty-five species of plants, the 

 result of one visit to each island. The collection from the main island was restricted 

 to the irregular strip of land opposite the anchorage, and to the gully immediately above 

 the settlement, which had been explored only to a height of about four hundred feet 

 at the time the recall was hoisted on board the ship, owing to a sudden squall, accom- 

 panied by hail. Nevertheless, in the six hours he was ashore, Mr Moseley gathered 

 specimens of thirty-eight vascular plants, though, of course, he missed the more interesting 

 endemic species peculiar to the high land. The numbers for the other islands are — 

 Inaccessible twenty-one, and Nightingale ten species. The special interest of this 



