CHAP. XTX THE MADAGASCAR GROUP 441 



equally allied to those of the Cape and of the mountains 

 of Central Africa. Some Asiatic types are present which 

 do not occur in Africa ; and even the curious American 

 affinities of some of the animals are reproduced in the 

 vegetable kingdom. These last are so interesting that 

 they deserve to be enumerated. An American genus of 

 Euphorbiacece, Omphalea, has one species in Madagascar, 

 and Pedilanthus, another genus of the same natural order, 

 has a similar distribution. Myrosma, an American genus 

 of Scitaminese has one Madagascar species; while the 

 celebrated '* travellers' tree," Ravcnala maclagascaricnsis, 

 belonging to the order Musacese, has its nearest ally in a 

 plant inhabiting N. Brazil and Guiana. Echinolsena, a 

 genus of grasses, has the same distribution.^ 



Of the flora of the smaller Madagascarian islands we 

 possess a fuller account, owing to the recent publication 

 of Mr. Baker's Fhra of the Mauritius and the Seychelles, 

 including also Bodriguez. The total number of species 

 in this flora is 1,058, more than half of which (536) are 

 exclusively Mascarene — that is, found only in some of 

 the islands of the Madagascar group, while nearly a third 

 (304) are endemic or confined to single islands. Of the 

 widespread plants sixty-six are found in Africa but not 

 in Asia, and eighty-six in Asia but not in Africa, showing 

 a similar Asiatic preponderance to what is said to occur 

 in Madagascar, With the genera, however, the propor- 

 tions are different, for I find by going through the whole 

 of the generic distributions as given by Mr. Baker, that 

 out of the 440 genera of wild plants fifty are endemic, 

 twenty-two are Asiatic but not African, Avhile twenty-eight 

 are African but not Asiatic. This implies that the more 

 ancient connection has been on the side of Africa, while 

 a more recent immigration, shown by identity of species, 

 has come from the side of Asia ; and it is already certain 

 that when the flora of Madagascar is more thoroughly 

 worked out, a still greater African preponderance will be 

 found in that island. 



^ This brief account of the Madagascar flora has been taken from a very 

 interesting paper by the Rev. Richard Baron, F.L.S,, F.G.S., in the 

 Journal of the Linnean Society , y o\. XXV., p. 246; where much informa- 

 tion is given on the distribution of the flora within the island. 



