156 Transactions. — Botany. 



Ferns are wonderfully numerous and luxuriant, and com- 

 pose over one-fourth of the entire flora. They form the chief 

 undergrowth in the forest, filling every ravine and hollow place, 

 and descend the cliffs to the level of the sea. Even in the 

 banana plantations they appear as weeds, Pteris comans being 

 particularly abundant in such situations, forming a dense 

 tangled mass 5 feet in height or more, which is soon renewed 

 if cut down. The species most generally distributed are Cyathea 

 milnei, Pteris comans, and P. tremula, Aspidium aristatum, Hypo- 

 lepis tenuifolia, Aspleniwn flaccidum, Lomaria acuminata, and 

 Doodia media. Our common fern, Pteris aquilina, is decidedly 

 scarce, and is apparently confined to a locality in Denham Bay 

 and another near Fleetwood Bluff. A feAv tropical species were 

 added to those already known to inhabit the island, the most 

 interesting being Nephrolepis exaltata, which is abundant in 

 Denham Bay ; Nephrodium setigerum, not uncommon in most 

 of the ravines ; and an Asplenium of the Diplazwm section. 

 which was only noticed in a ravine on the north side of the 

 island, but was plentiful enough there. 



My visit was too short to allow me to make collections of any 

 size in the other families of cryptogams. Mosses and liverworts 

 are abundant, but the species are few in number. The larger 

 foliaceous lichens, of the genera Sticta, Parmelia, etc., are pretty 

 frequent, both on trees and rocks. Very few fungi were noticed, 

 but then the time of our visit was probably unfavourable for 

 them. 



Naturalised plants are not so numerous as might have 

 been anticipated, considering that small portions of the island 

 have been cultivated for forty years. One of the commonest 

 and most conspicuous weeds is the Cape gooseberry (PhysaUs 

 peruviana), which rapidly overruns deserted cultivations. I 

 observed one patch of three or four acres that was almost 

 entirely covered with it, to tbe exclusion of other vegetation. 

 Stellaria media, Cerastium vulgatum, Senebiera coronopus, S. 

 didyma, Erigeron canadensis, Senecio vulgaris, and Veronica 

 arvensis, are all plentiful, and pretty generally distributed in 

 suitable places. 



The cultivated plants of Sunday Island have a thoroughly 

 tropical aspect, and make a strong contrast with the indigenous 

 vegetation. The cultivations are mostly little plots on terraces 

 of fertile volcanic soil, or sunny nooks in the open gullies. 

 Several varieties of bananas are grown; a tall coarse kind 

 attains nearly 25 feet in height, with leaves 12 to 15 feet in 

 length. Four or five varieties of the taro, three of yams, and 

 two or three of kumaras are cultivated, and appear to do very 

 well. The sugarcane, the pineapple, the guava, the custard- 

 apple, the rose-apple, the pomegranate, the papaw, the mango, 

 oranges, shaddocks, citrons, &c, are all grown to some extent, 



