Cheeseman. — On the Flora of the Kermadec Islands. 151 



Aet. XXIII. — On the Flora of the Kermadec Islands ; with Notes 



on the Fauna. 



By T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., Curator of the Auckland 



Museum. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 14</« November, 1887.] 



A few months ago the Colonial Government dispatched the 

 steamer Stella to the Kermadec Islands, for the purpose of 

 formally annexing the group to the Colony of New Zealand ; 

 and through the kind offices of the Assistant Surveyor-General, 

 Mr. Percy Smith, I received permission to accompany the expe- 

 dition. Mr. Smith has contributed to the Institute an account 

 of the physical features and geology of the islands ; I propose to 

 describe the chief characteristics of the flora, and its relation- 

 ship to that of New Zealand, also to Norfolk Island and Lord 

 Howe's Island, both of which are very similar in character to 

 the Kermadec Islands, and are situated in the same latitude. 

 To this I shall ask leave to add some scattered notes on various 

 branches of the fauna, and a few general considerations on the 

 probable mode by which the islands have received their plants 

 and animals. 



The Kermadec Group consists of a chain of widely separated 

 small islands, four in number, situated between 29° 10' and 

 31° 30' S. lat., and stretching in a south-west and north-east 

 direction over more than 140 miles. Tbe largest of the islands, 

 Kaoul, or Sunday, is about 20 miles in circumference. It is the 

 furthest from New Zealand, being rather more than 640 miles 

 from Auckland, and a little less than that distance from Tonga. 

 The next in size, Macaulay Island, is 68 miles to the south-west 

 of Sunday Island. The remaining two, Curtis andL'Esperance, 

 are still further to the south-west, but they are little more than 

 mere rocks. On the last mentioned we were unable to land; 

 and bad weather rendered our visit to Curtis Island a very brief 

 one. My remarks must, therefore, be in great measure confined 

 to Sunday aud Macaulay Islands. 



The depth of the ocean between the islands, so far as is 

 known, varies from 500 to 600 fathoms. In the map accom- 

 panying the narrative of the Challenger expedition, the 1,000 

 fathom hue is shown to enclose the whole of the group within a 

 narrow elliptical area about 200 miles in length. To the north- 

 east and south-west, on a line drawn through the islands from 

 Tonga to New Zealand, the depth varies from 1,000 to 2,000 

 fathoms. Immediately to the eastward, however, much deeper 

 water is found, and stretches all the way across the Pacific 

 to the American coast. A large triangular patch, over 2,000 

 fathoms in depth, occurs also to the west and north-west of the 



