296 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



only woody plant is the small creeping Coprosma repens, 

 because it usually grows on trees. A re-examination 

 of a very small collection of Macquarie Island plants 

 sent by Mr. Fraser of the Sydney Botanic Garden to the 

 late Sir William Hooker, about sixty years ago, has led to 

 the discovery of Lycopodium Selago, associated with Azor- 

 ella Selago, a very similar plant in external appearance. In 

 addition to the foregoing there are three colonised vascular 

 plants, namely, Stellaria media, Cerastium triviale and Poa 

 annua ; and Mr. Hamilton states that he also collected 

 Tillcea muscosa and two sedges, but the specimens were 

 lost. If we except three imperfectly known grasses, which 

 Mr. Kirk has described as new (24), there are no endemic 

 plants in the island. The vascular cryptogams are all 

 widely spread, two of them recurring in the northern hemi- 

 sphere. Of the flowering plants upwards of half are confined to 

 the New Zealand region, and the rest have a wider range. 

 Stilbocarpa polaris ( Aral iacese) and Pleurophyllum Hookerii 

 (Composite) are the two most remarkable and most con- 

 spicuous plants in this meagre flora ; the former having 

 large rhubarb-like leaves, and the latter silky, silvery leaves 

 and handsome purple flower-heads in long racemes. Colo- 

 banthus, Azorella, Acczna and Uncinia are equally charac- 

 teristic in the South American region. 



Quite recently a fresh account of Lord Howe, Pit- 

 cairn and Norfolk Islands has appeared (25), but it con- 

 tains nothing new on the botany of these islands. Special 

 stress is laid on the beauty of the vegetation of Howe 

 Island, where palms and tree ferns abound, and fig-trees of 

 the banyan type attain dimensions hardly exceeded else- 

 where. What is known, however, of the botany of this 

 interesting island has appeared in Government Reports and 

 scattered in a variety of publications (26-29) of limited 

 circulation. It is true that Sir F. von Mueller long ago 

 published (30) a bare list of all the plants known to him 

 from the island, but it is incomplete, and supplies no in- 

 formation beyond the names of the plants. This being so, 

 I am preparing a detailed account of the flora of this island 

 with a view to publication elsewhere. I may here give, 



