ANNALS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



XXXVII. — Florula Keelingensis. An Account of the Native 

 Plants of the Keeling Islands, By the Rev. J. S. Henslow, 

 M.A., Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge. 



THE Reelings consist of small coral islands, ranging in a cir- 

 cle, and inclosing a lagoon or salt-water lake of nine and a half 

 miles in its longest diameter. They lie in lat. 12° 5' S., and 

 long. 90° 55' E., very nearly 600 geographical miles to the 

 S.W. of Java Head or the Straits of Sunda. They stand 

 apart from any other group or archipelago, and the naturalist 

 is curious to learn the character of their productions. Mr. 

 Darwin, who accompanied the Beagle in her late voyage round 

 the world, visited these islands in 1836, and is about to give 

 an account of their geological conditions, as well as of the 

 scanty zoology which they furnish. As he obligingly pre- 

 sented me with the plants which he collected, together with 

 his memoranda respecting them, I have thought that a list of 

 the species, accompanied by a few remarks, might be of in- 

 terest ; and chiefly as serving to point out a set of plants 

 whose seeds must be provided in a very eminent degree with 

 the means of resisting the influence of sea water. For the 

 satisfactory determination of the geographical distribution of 

 species, it is necessary to be extremely careful in discrimina- 

 ting the species and even varieties which occur in different 

 regions, and I have therefore generally added a few remarks 

 on the state of the individual specimens in question, that every 

 one may form a better estimate of the degree of probability of 

 each having been correctly identified. 



The largest of the islands is about five miles long and a 

 quarter of a mile broad. Some sand hillocks on it are thirty 

 feet in height, but the general level does not exceed six or 

 eight feet. The foundation of all of them is a solid coral reef, 

 which receives continued additions from fragments of coral 

 and sand brought by the waves and wind. The soil is entirely 



Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol. I. No. 5. July 1838. z 



