INSULAR FLORAS. 291 



ber of assumed indigenous species of vascular plants in 

 my enumeration is 290, whereof 246 have a westward, and 

 220 have an eastward extension in Polynesia; 138 are 

 Australasian (Australia, New Zealand and outlying islands), 

 162 are Malayan, and at least 150 have a wider range 

 either in the Old or New World, or in both. From the 

 foregoing figures it will be seen that the Bora of the 

 Tonga Islands is largely composed, like the very small one 

 of the Gilbert Islands, of species of wide distribution. 

 Indeed no genus is peculiar to the group, and only ten 

 species so far as our present knowledge goes are endemic, 

 and a more complete exploration of the Fiji Islands and 

 other neighbouring groups may reduce this number. The 

 290 species of the Tongan flora represent no fewer than 

 202 genera and seventy-nine natural orders out of the 202 

 recognised in Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum. 

 The proportions are 2*55 genera to an order, and 1 '43 species 

 to a genus in the Tongan flora. In the flora of the world 

 the proportions I obtained by a very rough calculation are 

 37 '5° genera to an order, and 12*65 species to a genus. 

 Taking the number of Tongan species (138) which extend 

 to Australasia, one might overestimate the affinities, be- 

 cause, as a matter of fact, a large proportion of these species 

 have a wide range. Indeed only a dozen species have 

 decidedly Australasian connections. These are : Melicytus 

 ramiflorus, Ratonia stipitata, Metrosideros polymorpha, 

 Jasmirmm simplicifolium, Hoya australis, Iponuea congesta, 

 Pisonia inermis, Peperomia leptostackya, Euphorbia Spar- 

 mannii, Ficus aspera, Podocarpus elata and Pteris comans. 

 It will be perceived that the connections are specific rather 

 than generic. But the most significant facts brought out 

 in the paper under consideration are two, namely, the 

 large proportion of species — upwards of a third — peculiar to 

 Polynesia, and the strongly Malayan character of the flora, 

 generally, of the Tonga, Fiji and Samoa Islands. 



Several additional small contributions to the flora of 

 the Solomon Islands have appeared (7), including some 

 highly interesting novelties collected by the officers of 

 H.M.S. Penguin, and the Rev. R. B. Comins. Excellent 



