32 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



bably rich endemic element on the mountains of the 

 interior of the larger islands. A rough list of the plants 

 collected by Dr. Guppy has appeared, 1 and in spite of the 

 fragmentary character of many of the specimens, there was 

 sufficient material to establish several new genera, and a 

 number of new species ; and many still remain undescribed. 

 Cominsia Guppy v" 2 is a remarkable new genus of the Scita- 

 minea allied to Pkrynium, and characterised by a very long 

 corolla-tube and singularly rugose seeds. Another specially 

 noteworthy novelty is a new genus of Pandanaceae 3 collected 

 by Dr. Guppy on the highest peak of Fauro Island, about 

 1500 feet above sea level. It is a tree fifty feet high, with 

 an unbranched trunk, long, narrow almost unarmed leaves, 

 and a much-branched spadix of female flowers three to four 

 feet long. Dr. Beccari collected imperfect specimens of the 

 same tree on the north-west coast of New Guinea. 



Not less remarkable is the new sapotaceous genus 

 Che lone spernmm} The large, curiously formed dorsiven- 

 tral seeds of one or two species had been known for years, 

 but neither flowers nor fruit ; and it was not till 1879, when 

 Mr. Home, late director of the Mauritius Botanic Garden, 

 brought two leaves and a seed from the Fijis, that the native 

 country of any species was known. In 1891 the Rev. R. 

 B. Comins brought seeds of two apparently distinct species 

 from the Solomon Islands, and the following year he suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining a specimen of one almost past the 

 flowering stage, and a ripe fruit. The latter resembles a 

 pear of medium size, and contains a single compressed seed 

 with an exceeding hard testa, smooth and shinino- on what 

 may be termed the dorsal surface, which extends into an 

 overlapping, more or less jagged or spiny, margin, and a 

 more or less uneven and spiny ventral surface. The 



1 The Solomon Islands and their Natives. H. B. Guppy, 1887, pp. 

 280-307. 



2 W. Botting Hemsley, in Annals of Botany, v., 1891, t. 27. 



3 To be published shortly by the writer, with some other novelties 

 from the same region, in the Journ. Linn. Soc, vol. xxx. 



4 W. Botting Hemsley, in Annals of Botany, vi., 1892, pp. 203-210, 

 plates 11-14. 



