539 



THE BOTANY OF FUNAFUTI, ELLICE GROUP. 



By J. H. Maiden, Goverxment Botanist and Director of the 

 Botanic Gardens, Sydney. 



These observations are based on collections made by Mrs. 

 Edgeworth David during a residence on the island in July and 

 August, 1897, and also on some specimens collected by Messrs. 

 G. H. Halligan and A. E. Finckh in 1898. To Mrs. David I am 

 further indebted for many valuable notes, including the vernacu- 

 lar names. 



Little has been published in regard to the phanerogams and 

 vascular cryptogams of Funafuti. The principal paper dealing 

 with the botany is that by Mr. C. Hedley."^ I trust, therefore, 

 that the observations which follow will be of some interest. 

 Owing to the excessive humidity of the atmosphere of the small 

 coral islands, botanical collections are usually destroyed in a 

 short period, and it is mainly to this circumstance, I think, that 

 full lists of the limited insular floras of the South Pacific have 

 not been published long ago. 



Some of the specimens were not sufficiently complete for abso- 

 lute identification; attention has been drawn to these under the 

 genera concerned; in a few in^^tances not even the genus could 

 be determined. Those cases are the plants known by the names 

 of Pula, Molomolo, and Tala-tala-moa; there are also a few 

 fragments of which the native names are not available. 



Owing to the difficulty of preserving specimens in the ordinary 

 way,t I recommend that the use of presses be either abandoned 

 or used as a supplementary method, and that plants be preserved 

 in the wet way. To this end the equipment of the botanical 



* Australian Museum, Sydney : Memoir iii. " The Atol of Funafuti." 

 Part i. 



+ Mrs. David made four separate collections o pecimens, attempted to 

 dry them in the plant press, and lost them all. 



