2 Transactions. 



Present Condition of the Vegetation. 



At present Norfolk Island is a mass of weeds from summit to base. Even 

 the bush, or " stick " as it is called by the Norfolkers, is full of introduced 

 plants ; and in the open country they are far more common than the native 

 species. There is probably not an acre of open land on the island — perhaps 

 not a quarter of an acre — which does not contain the introduced Solarium 

 auriculatum in quantity. Solanum sodomaeum and Cassia levigata are almost 

 as common. There is at present not sufficient labour on the island to cope 

 with these pests ; however, one at least of them (S. sodomaeum) has, I think, 

 reached its natural limits of increase, and is not now so plentiful as it was 

 when I paid a short visit to the island in January, 1901. Other serious 

 pests are Lantana camara, Datura stramonium, and Salvia pseudococcinea. 

 Ricinus communis and Phytolacca octandra are also fairly abundant. Lemon- 

 trees and occasional other species of Citrus are found nearly all through the 

 bush, and there are large groves of guavas everywhere. Stock are allowed 

 to run wherever there are no fences, and this helps to destroy the under- 

 growth. However, at Hundred Acres there is a reserve of some 50 acres 

 which has been enclosed for several years. In another four or five years 

 it will be impenetrable to man without a bill-hook. It shows how quickly 

 the bush would reclothe the island if stock were removed. Here the weeds 

 are fewer than in other parts of the island, and, apart from occasional plants 

 of Citrus, Cassia, and Solanum, the bush is chiefly of indigenous growth. 

 This, however, cannot be taken as representing the primeval forest, for 

 doubtless this area had been run through by stock for fifty years before its 

 enclosure, and also had been searched for timber. Most, though not all, 

 of its present covering is second growth. Indeed, in the convict days about 

 four-fifths of the island was under cultivation. This, where not covered 

 with weeds or used as orchard, is now pasture land, grassed with Cynodon 

 dactylon, a grass that has probably been introduced. Paspalum dilatatum 

 and Stenotaphrum americanum are also sometimes sown. 



These grasses provide pasture for a number of cattle, horses, and a few 

 sheep. In dry seasons the island is altogether overstocked, and the stock 

 are allowed to roam freely over it in search of fodder. It is true that in addi- 

 tion to the reserve at Hundred Acres already mentioned there are several 

 other bush -enclosures, but these are at times open to stock, and wherever 

 the cattle go the smaller indigenous plants disappear, young bush trees 

 are destroyed, and weeds become abundant. Indeed, few of the bush 

 plants seem to be able to survive under these conditions except Lagunaria 

 Patersoni, Araucaria excelsa, and one or two other trees and creepers. It 

 is now, therefore, difficult for the botanist to distinguish between indigenous 

 and introduced plants. The nature of these difficulties will be discussed 

 more fully presently. 



Our Knowledge op the Flora. 



Fortunately for us, however, the plants of the island were fully collected 

 in 1804-5 by Ferdinand Bauer, the flower-painter. His collections were 

 described by a well-known botanist, Stephen Endlicher, of Vienna, in 1833. 

 The descriptions in most cases are so good and detailed that for systematic 

 purposes little needs to be added to them at the present day? Just a century 

 later than Bauer's visit, in 1904, there was published the comprehensive and 

 judicial paper on the flora of Norfolk Island, by Mr. J. H. Maiden, Director 

 of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney. To Endlicher and Maiden's Floras, there- 

 fore, I am particularly indebted" in this paper, and without them this could 



