INSULAR FLORAS. 33 



Solomon Islanders are well acquainted with the seeds, from 

 which they extract the embryo, and use the hard shell for 

 various purposes. From their resemblance, the natives call 

 them turtle-seeds; and they sometimes engrave figures of a 

 not inelegant pattern on the dorsal surface. Four species 

 are imperfectly known : one from Fiji, two from the Solomon 

 Islands, and one of which the native country is unknown. 

 A seed of one of the Solomon Islands species was sent 

 from Edinburgh for identification, and this was labelled 

 as having been received from the New Hebrides. More 

 complete material is wanted of all the species, and for this 

 reason these somewhat full particulars are given. 



Rarity of Australian types is almost equally as marked 

 in the Solomon Islands as in Eastern Polynesia — an un- 

 described Grevillea and Dendrobium hispidum are excep- 

 tions. Of course, more complete explorations may reveal 

 closer affinities. The Germans have collected considerably 

 in the northern islands of the Solomon group, in the 

 islands composing the Archipelago of New Britannia, 

 better known, perhaps, as New Britain and New Ireland, 

 as well as in the Caroline and Marshall Islands, in the 

 North-West Pacific ; and these collections have been pub- 

 lished by various botanists. 1 The novelties described are 

 chiefly specific, and belong to characteristic Malayan 

 genera. Hansemannia is a proposed new pluricarpellary 

 genus of the Mimoseae ; but, as Bentham long ago sug- 

 gested, 2 it would be better, perhaps, to treat these 

 pluricarpellary Mimoseae as species of the genera to 

 which they are otherwise very closely allied, rather than 

 as independent genera. Taken altogether, these contri- 



1 Ueber den Vegetationscharactef der Inseln der Neubritannischen 

 Archipels und der Insel Bougainville : Naumann, in Engler's Jahr- 

 bucher, vi., 1885, pp. 422-426. Die auf der Expedition S. M. S. 

 "Gazelle" Gesammelten Orchideen : Kranzlin, in op. cit., vii., 1886, pp. 

 435"443- Die auf der Expedition, etc., Gesammelten Phanerogamen : 

 Engler, op. cit., pp. 444-480. Die flora der deutschen ostasiatischen 

 Schutzgebietes : Schumann, in op. cit., ix., 1887, PP- 189-223. Flora 

 des Stewart-Atolls im Stillen Ocean : Giinther Ritter von Beck, in Ann. 

 des K. K. Naturhist, Hofnius, iii., 1888, pp. 251-256. 



2 Transactions of the Linnean Society, xxx., p. 349. 



3 " 



