402 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



tant discovery to chronicle. It has been on record for 

 nearly fifty years (29) that a kind of sandal-wood was, in 

 earlier times, very common in the island ; and also that it 

 all perished (from what cause we are not told, but the 

 assumption is from an unusually low temperature) in one 

 and the same year. This bare statement was in a manner 

 supported by the undoubted existence of dead trunks 

 having the anatomical characters of sandal-wood. Other- 

 wise the probabilities were against the correctness of this 

 record, because there is no true Santalum in America, and 

 the nearest habitat of any species of the genus is in the 

 Marquesas Islands, some 3500 miles to the north-west 

 of Juan Fernandez. But unimpeachable evidence, in the 

 form of living specimens in flower, has come to light ; 

 and Mr. F. Philippi (30) has figured and described the 

 species under the name of Santalum femandezianum. 

 Judging from the figure and an imperfect specimen lately 

 sent to Kew by the author, it is near, though distinct from, 

 6". Freycinetianum, which inhabits the Marquesas, Society 

 and Hawaiian Islands, and very different from the Indian 

 S. album, to which Gay referred it in the work cited above. 

 A recent work (31) on the ferns of Juan Fernandez merits 

 attention for the very careful manner in which the author 

 has worked out the geographical and biological details from 

 observations on the spot. The number of species enumer- 

 ated is forty-five, being one more than enumerated by 

 the writer (32) ; and seven of them are endemic. 

 It is a singular and unaccountable fact that the Lycopo- 

 diacese are not represented in these islands. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



(1) HOOKER. Icones Plantarum, t. 2250. Transactions of the 



New Zealand Institute, xxv., p. 269, t. 20. 



(2) T. KlRK. On the Flowering Plants of Stewart Island. 



Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, xvii., pp. 213-228, 

 1885. On the Ferns and Fern Allies of Stewart Island. Inofi. 

 cit., pp. 228-234. See also D. Petrie, vol. xiii., pp. 323-332, 

 for complete list of plants then known. 



(3) T. KlRK. On the Botany of the Snares. Transactions of the 



New Zealand Institute, xxiii., pp. 426-431, 1891. Also 

 fournal of Botany, pp. 206-208, and 236-239, 1891. 



