INSULAR FLORAS. 



PART VI. (a). 



IN the preceding articles I have briefly reviewed the 

 literature relating to Insular Floras which has appeared 

 during the last decade, and I have extracted therefrom the 

 principal or most interesting facts, which I have given with 

 some comments of my own. That I have been able to do 

 this with some profit is largely due to the advantages I have 

 enjoyed through the kindness of the Director of the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew. Since the publication in 1885 of my first 

 essay on this subject, in the Botany of the Voyage of H. M.S. 

 " Challenger" all or nearly all collections of insular plants 

 received at Kew have passed through my hands for determina- 

 tion and reporting on ; and I have also been favoured with 

 many notes and criticisms by travellers and other persons 

 interested in plant distribution. I propose therefore to 

 enter into a short recapitulation and discussion of the main 

 facts thus accumulated ; but before doing - so I will refer to 

 some more or less important contributions to the subject 

 that have come to light during the progress of the present 

 series of articles. 1 



It will be convenient to take the islands in the same 

 geographical order previously followed (1), beginning with 

 Polynesia. 



There are some interesting recent contributions to the 

 flora of Polynesia, taking the designation in its widest 

 sense ; but no one has yet attempted to bring together what is 

 known, or ascertainable from materials preserved in herbaria, 

 of the vegetation of the numerous small coral islands and 

 groups of islands, more or less recently annexed by, or taken 

 under the protection of, Great Britain. This the writer is 

 engaged upon, and some particulars thus acquired may be 



1 A review of the additional literature having extended beyond what 

 was expected, the discussion referred to will form the subject of a conclud- 

 ing article. 



