DR. HOOKER ON THE BOTANY OF RAOTIL ISLAND. 125 



On the Botany of Eaoul Island, one of the Kermadec group in 

 the South Pacific Ocean. By J. D. Hooker, Esq., M.D. 

 E.E.S., F.L.S. &c. 



[Bead April 1st, 1856.] 



The materials from which the following sketch is drawn up con- 

 sist of a small collection of plants made upon Eaoul Island, by 

 Mr. M'Gillivray, late Naturalist to H.M.S. Herald, under the 

 command of Captain Denham, E.N., who forwarded the collection 

 in question to Sir W. Hooker ; and whose zealous exertions in 

 furthering the scientific objects of the expedition under his com- 

 mand demand the grateful acknowledgement of all classes of 

 naturalists. 



Very little being known of the Kermadec group, I applied to 

 Captain Washington, E.N., the present able and assiduous Hydro- 

 grapher to the Admiralty, who promptly forwarded me the follow- 

 ing information. 



The name of Kermadec Islands was first given, in the chart 

 accompanying Admiral Eossel's account of D'Entrecasteaux's 

 voyage in search of La Peyronse, to a group situated about 450 

 miles N.E. of New Zealand, between that group and the Eijis. 

 They consist of four principal islands, Macauley and Curtis 

 Islands, discovered before D'Entrecasteaux's visit, by Lieutenant 

 Watts in the JPenrhyn in 1788, and Eaoul and Esperance Islands, 

 by D'Entrecasteaux on March 15th, 1793. 



Eaoul, or Sunday Island, is described both by D'Entrecasteaux 

 (vol. i. 295) and D'Urville (Voy. de l'Astrolabe, iii. 7) as trian- 

 gular, and not more than four leagues in circumference, forming 

 a high, rugged, steep mountain covered with wood. Commodore 

 Wilkes, who afterwards visited it, adds that it appears to be vol- 

 canic, and that its rocks rise like basaltic columns. 



Captain Denham in H.M.S. Herald finished the survey of this 

 island on July 24th, 1854, and reports that "it is in lat. 29° 15 30" S., 

 long. 177° 54' 52" W., and that its maximum altitude is 1627 feet." 

 Its only inhabitants consist of a family from New York, to whose 

 humane disposition he is indebted, under the trying circumstances 

 of having to inter his son close to their settlement. Poultry, 

 vegetables and water can be procured there during the summer. 



Some further information regarding Eaoul Island is given by 

 Mr. Milne (Botanical Collector to the Expedition) in Hooker's 

 ' Journal of Botany' (vii. 151), where the luxuriance of the 

 Cryptogamic vegetation is particularly alluded to, and the pre- 



