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



indigenous in America only, though it is now very widely spread in the Old World. It is 

 an annual, and is commonly cultivated for ornament. 



Gomphrena canescens, R. Br. var. % 



Gomphrena canescens, R. Br. var.? Benth., Fl. Austr., v. p. 253. 

 Timor Laut. — Typical Gomphrena canescens has only been found in the northernmost 

 part of Australia. 



OHENOPODIACE^B. 



Salsola kali, Linn. var. 



Salsola kali, Linn. var. ; Benth., Fl. Austr., v. p. 207. 



Salsola australis, R. Br., Prodr. Fl. N. Holl, p. 411 ; Miq., Fl. Ind. Bat., i. 1, p. 102. 



Salsola tragus, Dene., Herb. Timor. Descr., p. 42, excl. syn. 



Maru. — This seaside and salt-marsh herb is very widely diffused in temperate and 

 subtropical regions, both in America and in the Old World. 



Aristolochia indica, Linn. var. 1 



Aristolochia indica, Linn. var. ? Benth., Fl. Austr., vi. p. 209 ; Miq., Fl. Ind. Bat., i. 1, p. 1066. 



Timor Laut. — This species ranges from Asia to North Australia, if the form found 

 there really belongs to Aristolochia, indica, of which Bentham was not quite certain. The 

 distribution of the large genus Aristolochia is somewhat peculiar. It is almost universal 

 in temperate and tropical regions, yet very rare, or quite absent from some large areas. 

 Thus no species is indigenous in Britain ; and in the southern hemisphere the genus is not 

 represented in extratropical South Africa nor in New Zealand, and only one species grows 

 in Chili. Five species are found in Eastern Australia, but none in Western ; and 

 Duchartre, who monographed the genus for De Candolle's Prodromus, was not aware of the 

 existence of the genus in Polynesia. Neither Seemann nor any other writer on the Flora 

 of Polynesia includes the genus. But in 1878 Mr Home, of the Mauritius Botanic 

 Garden, collected fruit-bearing specimens of an Aristolochia in the Fiji group ; and more 

 recently the Rev. Mr Powell sent a capsule and a flower of a species gathered in Samoa. 

 There is no record of the exact localities of these Polynesian species, nor of their relative 

 frequency ; but we may assume that they are rare or very local, otherwise earlier collectors 

 would have met with them. 



PIPERACEiE. 

 Piper spp. 



Larat ; Timor Laut ; Babar. — Imperfect specimens of three or four species of Piper 

 are in the collections from the above islands. They include what may be Piper offieinarum, 

 C. DC. (Chavica offieinarum, Miq.), which is common throughout the Archipelago, though 

 it does not extend to Australia. The genus is represented in all tropical countries. 



