404 BOTANICAL BIOLOGY. 



vegetation of a region which had never previously been adequately ex- 

 amined. Nor must I forget the recent publication of the masterly report 

 by Prof. Bayley Balfour on the plants collected by himself and Schwein- 

 furth in Socotra, an island with which the ancient Egyptians traded, 

 but the singularly anomalous flora of which was almost wholly unknown 

 up to our time. 



The flora of Africa has been at present but imperfectly worked up, 

 but the materials have been so far discussed as to aflbrd a tolerably 

 correct theory of its relations. The harvest from Mr. Johnston's ex- 

 pedition to Kilimanjaro was not as rich as might have been hoped. 

 Still, it was sufficient to confirm the conclusions at which Sir Joseph 

 Hooker had arrived, on very slender data, as to the relations of the high- 

 level vegetation of Africa generally. The flora of Madagascar is per- 

 haps, at the moment, the most interesting problem which Africa pre- 

 sents to the botanist. As the rich collections, for which we are indebted 

 to Mr. Baron and others, are gradually worked out, it can hardly be 

 doubted that it will be necessary to modify in some respects the views 

 which are generally received as to the relation of the island to the African 

 continent. My colleague, Mr. Baker, communicated to the York meet- 

 ing of the association the results which, up to that time, he had arrived 

 at, and these, subsequent material has not led him to modify. The flora 

 as a whole presents a large proportion of endemic genera and species, 

 pointing to isolation from a very ancient date. The tropical element is 

 however closely allied to that of tropical Africa and of the Mascarene 

 Islands, and there is a small infusion of Asiatic types which do not 

 extend to Africa. The high-level flora, on the other hand, exhibits an 

 even closer affinity with that temperate flora, the ruins of which aie 

 scattered over the mountainous regions of Central Africa, and which 

 survives in its greatest concentration at the Cape. 



The American botanists at Harvard are still systematically carrying 

 on the work of Torrey and Gray in the elaboration of the flora of North- 

 ern America. The Russians are, on their part, continually adding to 

 our knowledge of the flora of Northern and Central Asia. The M'hole 

 flora of the north temperate zone can only be regarded substantially as 

 one. The identity diminishes southwards, and increases in the case of 

 the Arctic and Alpine regions. A collection of plants brought us from 

 high levels in Corea, by Mr. James, might (as regards a large propor- 

 tion of the species) have been gathered on one of our own Scotch hills. 



We owe to the munificence of two Englishmen of science the organ- 

 ization of an extensive examination of the flora and fauna of Central 

 America and the publication of the results. The work when com[)leted 

 can hardly be less exi)ensive than that of the results of the ChaUeiujer 

 voyage, which has severely taxed the liberality of the English Govern- 

 ment. The problems which geographical distribution in this region 

 presents will doubtless be found to be of a singularly complicated 

 nature, and it is impossible to overestimate the debt of gratitude which 



