INSULAR FLORAS. 31 



carpels forming the fruit on long slender stalks joined at the 

 tips only. Returning to the numbers in Drake del Cas- 

 tillo's table showing the general distribution of the plants 

 inhabiting French Polynesia : besides the 161, or thereabout, 

 peculiar to those islands, 123 others do not extend 

 beyond Polynesia, making 284, or nearly half of the total 

 peculiar to Polynesia. With regard to those extending 

 beyond Polynesia (including Melanesia and Micronesia), 

 297 belong to the Indo-Malayan region, and only seven 

 to other regions. The almost total absence of Australian 

 types is remarkable ; but what is more remarkable, the 

 absence of such types is almost as great in Central and 

 Western Polynesia, where considerable explorations have 

 been made during the last few years. The Tonga or 

 Friendly Islands have been much visited from Cook's 

 time onward ; yet, until recently, no attempt had been 

 made to give a general account of the flora. This has 

 now been done. 1 Considering the small areas and the 

 inconsiderable elevations of the higher islands, there is a 

 fairly varied flora, including some endemic forms. Taken 

 as a whole the flora may be termed Fijian ; many of the 

 plants being common to the two groups and the Samoan 

 or Navigator's Islands to the north, with strong Malayan 

 affinities. Melicytus ramiflorus, a New Zealand shrub be- 

 longing to the Violaceae, also found in Norfolk Island, is one 

 of the recent discoveries in the Tonga Islands ; and perhaps 

 the only element in the flora indicating any connection 

 between the two floras. But it has a baccate fruit, and 

 its presence in Tonga may be due to the agency of 

 birds. 



Allusion has already been made to the discovery of 

 a highly curious Tahitan tree in the far distant western 

 Solomon Islands. Dr. H. B. Guppy and the Rev. R. B. 

 Comins have collected many other singular plants in this 

 group, 2 and there is evidence of the existence of a pro- 



1 " Flora of the Tonga Islands," W. Botting Hemsley, in Jonrn. 

 Linn. Soc, xxx., 1894. 



2 " New Solomon Islands Plants," W. Botting Hemsley, in Annals 

 of Botany, vol. v., 1891. 



