Laing. — Revised List of the Norfolk Island Flora. 5 



(2.) Plants now common throughout the island but not recorded by 

 Endlicher are probably introduced. It is quite clear that Bauer made a 

 thorough collection of the plants of the island. No endemic species, except 

 perhaps Clematis cocci difolia, has been discovered since his time. The 

 significance of this fact has not been sufficiently recognized by subsequent 

 collectors. Bauer certainly overlooked a few species, the most conspicuous 

 of which are Melicytns ramiflorus and Dodonaea viscosa ; the former of these, 

 however, is not abundant, and the latter grows in an area inaccessible in 

 his time. It may be that in some cases indigenous species once rare on the 

 island have, as a result of changed conditions, become abundant ; but I 

 have no specific evidence of this in any one case, and feel convinced that the 

 absence of any plant now common from Endlicher' s list is strong 'prima 

 facie evidence of its introduction subsequent to Bauer's visit. 



(3.) New Zealand and Australian plants only found subsequently to 

 Bauer's visit are, even if not common on the island, to be considered doubt- 

 ful, unless the conditions of their discovery clearly show them to be native. 

 Early whalers frequently brought plants to the island from neighbouring 

 lands. This, of course, is especially true of vegetables ; thus, a kumara 

 — " Sunday Island kumara " — largely cultivated on the island is said 

 to have been brought from the Kermadecs ; a certain variety of taro 

 probably came from the New Hebrides. Since the earliest convict days 

 continual exchanges of plants and seeds have been made between the 

 island and Sydney. 



(4.) Plants found only on the ruderal areas, on ground that has been 

 cultivated or in the neighbourhood of settlement, must also be considered 

 as probable recent importations. 



(5.) When a species known as an introduction in New Zealand and 

 Australia is found on Norfolk Island, it is probably also an introduction 

 in the last-mentioned habitat. 



(6.) It is clear from early accounts of the vegetation (M., pp. 774 and 775) 

 that when discovered the island, except for the shore-line, was original lv 

 totally covered with forest — e.g., "without a single acre of clear land " (Lieu- 

 tenant King) ; " For about 200 yards from the shore the ground is covered so 

 thick with shrubs and plants as hardly to be penetrated inland " (Captain 

 Cook). One would therefore expect the flora to consist exclusively or 

 almost exclusively of coastal and forest plants. Hence plants of the 

 prairie, pasture land, moor, or open country generally will be absent. Such 

 plants, therefore, as Viola betonicaefolia, Malvastrum tricuspidatum, Pelar- 

 gonium australe, Sida rhombifolia, may be regarded as doubtfully indigenous 

 at least. 



These are the chief tests I have used in determining whether a species 

 is native or alien. The above rules are, of course, not intended to be hard 

 and fast, they must rather be regarded as elastic ; but the considerations 

 given above will enable future observers to judge of my reasons for retain- 

 ing a plant or excluding it from this list. 



I think it very unlikely that further additions of importance will be 

 made to the list of indigenous species. I had good opportunities of visiting 

 every part of the island, and if I did not observe any species it can scarcelv 

 have been common. Still, there may be a few that I have failed to collect or 

 to identify for various reasons : (a.) In several cases the specimens secured 

 were too incomplete or immature for identification. (6.) Some nooks and 

 corners of the island escaped search. A further examination of Phillip 

 Island is undoubtedly required. At the foot of the cliffs and on the rock- 



