INSULAR FLORAS. 391 



be said of the large-leaved Aralia Lyallii, which has large 

 orbicular leaves two feet in diameter, borne on stout 

 petioles. The only endemic plant is Ligusticum acuti- 

 folium, observed only in one place. 



Passing from the extreme south of New Zealand to the 

 extreme north there is a group of islands called the Three 

 Kings ; the larger ones known as the Great King, East 

 King and West King respectively. They are situated 

 about thirty-eight miles north-west of Cape Maria van 

 Diemen. The largest of these islands is less than two 

 miles in its greatest diameter, and barely a thousand feet 

 high ; and the others are much smaller ; yet botanically 

 they are exceedingly interesting. Previous to 1887, how- 

 ever, they had not been visited by a botanist. In the spring 

 of that year, and again in 1889, Mr. T. F. Cheeseman was 

 given a passage on the Colonial Government steamer which 

 periodically visits the outlying islands to rescue possible 

 shipwrecked sailors ; and he has published a full account of 

 these visits (4). On the first occasion they landed only on 

 the Great King, where they collected eighty-two species of 

 vascular plants including fifteen ferns. Three are described 

 as new, namely, Pittosporum Fairchildii, Coprosma macro- 

 carpa and Paratrophis Smithii. On the second occasion 

 the party succeeded in landing on the West King as well as 

 on the Great King, and on the former a notable discovery 

 was made by the botanist, who, to his great delight, found 

 that the whole of the northern slope, where not too steep, 

 was covered with the rare Meryta Sinclairii (Botryodendron 

 Sinclairii), a very striking, large-leaved araliaceous tree. 

 Interspersed with it, in the more sheltered places, were 

 some fine luxuriant specimens of Cordyline australis, with 

 an undergrowth of the broad-leaved form of Piper excelstim. 

 Until this discovery was made it was believed that the 

 Meryta was almost extinct. It had never been found on the 

 mainland, except under cultivation, and only a few trees 

 were known to exist in the Taranga Islands (Hen and 

 Chickens), some 200 miles distant down the eastern coast, 

 off the mouth of Wangari Harbour, "where it is likely soon to 

 become extinct ". The second visit brought the total number 



