Oliver. — Vegetation and Flora of Lord Howe Island. 95 



myself. On the 17th November the " Malaita," returning from the New 

 Hebrides, called at Lord Howe Island, and I embarked with my collections, 

 and after a tempestuous voyage of two days arrived at Sydney. 



Altogether I have admitted as vascular plants indigenous to Lord Howe 

 Island 209 species. The difference, sixteen species, between this and Hems- 

 ley's list published twenty years ago is mainly due to the investigations 

 of Maiden and Watts. I have added only one name, Kyllinga monocephala, 

 and this species may have been recently introduced. Several species about 

 which there is some suspicion of their having been recorded in error are 

 retained because I have no good reason for omitting them, while there is 

 evidence of the presence on the island of two or three species of woody 

 plants not included in my list on account of insufficient material for deter- 

 mination. 



I have taken some trouble to give the names of the species in accord- 

 ance with the rules of botanical nomenclature adopted at the Vienna 

 Congress of 1905. This has involved several changes from the names 

 commonly in use. In the systematic part of the paper, therefore, I have 

 in all cases quoted the original reference. Following this I have given 

 the principal references to works where some information is to be found 

 regarding Lord Howe Island specimens, and also the earliest reference 

 recording the species in Lord Howe Island under each name to which it 

 has been referred. " Habitat " is used in an ecological sense, and is to be 

 distinguished from " distribution," used only to mean geographical range. 



My thanks for assistance in the production of this paper are due — in 

 the collection of specimens, to Mr. R. S. Bell, who, by giving me the benefit 

 of his wide knowledge of Lord Howe Island and acting as guide on several 

 of my excursions, made possible the amount of work I was able to do during 

 my stay on the island ; in the identification of my specimens, to the Rev. 

 W. W. Watts and Mr. C. H. Cheel, of Sydney, and Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, 

 F.L.S., F.Z.S., of Auckland ; and to the Board of Governors of the New 

 Zealand Institute and the Council of the Philosophical Institute of Canter- 

 bury, for grants of money, by the former out of the Hutton Memorial 

 Research Fund, to help defray expenses. To Dr. L. Cockayne, F.R.S., of 

 Wellington, I am indebted for many valuable suggestions. 



Physiography. 



Lord Howe Island is evidently but a fragment of a once more extensive 

 area, sheer cliffs of 800 m. showing sections of horizontal lava-flows, testify- 

 ing to a vast amount of denudation. The island is roughly crescent-shaped, 

 the convexity facing west. The extreme length is 9-6 km., and greatest 

 breadth 2-8 km. ; the total area is about 13 sq. km. 



Considered according to its geological structure, which determines the 

 physical features, Lord Howe Island may be divided for purposes of de- 

 scription into (a) two contiguous and much-denuded mountain masses form- 

 ing the southern end, with a low-lying portion stretching from their base 

 in a northerly direction and consisting of (6) three groups of volcanic hills 

 connected by (c) flat ground of marine origin. Across the bay on the west 

 side of the island a detached portion of the limestone formation of which 

 the flat ground is composed forms a reef uncovered at low water. 



The southern, or mountain, portion of the island consists of Mount Gower 

 (865 m.) and Mount Lidgbird (763 m.), connected by a ridge which dips 

 to 380 m. at its lowest point. Mount Gower is flat-topped, and on three 

 sides presents to the sea perpendicular cliffs, access to the summit being 



