04 Mr. R. B. Hinds on Geographic Botany. 



fourteen were found to be American, twelve Asiatic, thirteen 

 common with New Holland, twenty with the other Polynesian 

 islands, and thirteen with Europe. Some of the ferns are Ame- 

 rican, a few Asiatic. Of the whole flora, about a moiety of the 

 species are found beyond the islands. Much of the vegetation 

 is thus identical with other countries, but is distributed among 

 them v/ith surprising impartiality. 



The grounds on which its peculiarities rest, and on which its 

 individuality as an independent flora depends, may be briefly 

 hinted. The islands are without any plants which are likely to 

 confer on them an exclusive natural family. Cyrtandracem and 

 Sccevolece they possess in comparatively greater intensity than 

 others. Their only considerable genus is Kadua ; it has eight 

 or nine species. There are besides a few other genera limited to 

 the islands, but they have chiefly a solitary species each, rarely 

 as many as two or three. About one half the species as yet 

 known are confined to their own shores, but as a further acquaint- 

 ance is gained with the flora, this number will be most probably 

 increased. Those extensive compact forests of bulky and lofty 

 trees, which it is customary to find in tropical countries, have no 

 existence in the Sandwich islands. Their trees are not usually 

 of large growth, and they crowd up the sheltered and moist val- 

 leys. The plains are comparatively bare or only thinly wooded, 

 the trees preferring the precipitous sides of the mountains. Nor 

 has the vegetation that variety of shades of green to be expected ; 

 the leaves are of a dull lurid colour, generally they are small in 

 size, and more or less entire. The flowers are equally inconspi- 

 cuous for size, and do not possess much richness of colours : 

 the xanthic varieties greatly prevail, often rendered dull by a 

 greenish hue. LeguminoscB are said to be proportionately rare in 

 the Polynesian islands; in this group they are far from abundant. 

 As far as is yet known, no OrchidacecB are indigenous, a circum- 

 stance the more remarkable, since they are not uncommon in the 

 Society islands. 



We look in vain to these islands for evidence of the migration 

 of their flora. Though their own proper vegetation is below the 

 average, and is mixed largely with species common to other lands, 

 the number still remains sufficiently great to place any ideas of 

 its individuality beyond a doubt. They must be regarded as 

 possessing an original vegetation, which, whilst it has received 

 species from other countries, has sent occasionally some of its 

 members abroad to colonize the coral islands as they gradually 

 emerge from the ocean. In all probability, the solitary species 

 of Kadua found on Romanzofi* island has wandered from its na- 

 tive soil ; and Chamisso collected fifty-two species on the Radack 

 chain, a third of which are found on the Sandwich islands. 



