292 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



photographs of the singular new genus Sararanga 

 (Pandanaceae) have been received at Kew, as well as ripe 

 fruit in spirit, which will enable me to add to my published 

 description, though not to complete it, because the male 

 inflorescence is still unknown. Two species of Begonia, an 

 Oxymitra (Anonacese) with flowers nearly nine inches long, 

 a singular Tabernce Montana having a twisted fruit, and 

 the anomalous genus Lophopyxis (8) are among the latest 

 additions to the flora of the Solomon Islands. The last is 

 doubtingly placed in the Euphorbiaceae by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, and it has since been twice described (9 and 10), 

 and placed in different natural orders, namely, Combretopsis 

 (Olacinese) and Treubia (Saxifragaceae). There are two 

 or three very closely allied species or races inhabiting 

 Malacca, Ceram, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. 

 I may refer in passing to a zoological paper (11) in which 

 the author puts forward the theory of a former connection 

 of the Solomon, Fiji, New Hebrides, Loyalty, New- 

 Caledonia, Norfolk and New Zealand Islands with New 

 Guinea, but not with Australia. That there was, in the 

 remote past, a greater land area in this region seems 

 highly probable, but the relationships are so complex that 

 fuller data are required to afford a solution of the problem. 

 The present flora of Lord Howe Island, described a few 

 pages forward, does not favour Mr. Hedley's views in their 

 entirety on this point. 



In my reference to the flora of Christmas Island (12) I 

 overlooked a paper that supplemented mine to some extent 

 (13), especially in relation to the vegetation. 



Dr. Trimen (14) has published two more volumes of 

 his admirable flora of Ceylon, bringing it down to the end 

 of the Balanophoraceae, following the arrangement of 

 Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum. The same 

 author has drawn up a provisional list (15) of Maldive 

 plants ; the first, I believe, that has appeared. As might 

 be expected there is no endemic element, and the vegeta- 

 tion is an assemblage of the ubiquitous coral island plants 

 and weeds of cultivation. Dr. Trimen makes no mention of 

 the Cocos maldivica or Coco-de-mer (Lodoicea sey die liar inn) \ 



