14 PnOCBEDlNGS OF THE 



The Ot'iicral St>ci't'tai-v, on ht'liall" of Mr. fJEnAM) W. K. Lodkr, 

 drew attention to ton out of the (h'st twelve nmubers of Cuftis's 

 'Botanical Maj^azine' in the original blue-grey wrai)pers, and 

 pointed out tlie infonnation which is lost when the wra|)pero are 

 destroyed by the bookbinder. 



In the present case, no. 1 belongs to the reprint of 1703; it 

 contains tlie regulations for the use of tlie Jiroinpton Botanic 

 (Jarden, and on the fourth page, the contents of No. 77 of 

 the 'Flora LondimMisis ' namely, Scilld autumnalls, Jfieracinm 

 umhellatum^ Carduns /loh/dcioithus, C. tenuiflorus, Valeriana offici- 

 iiali.'i, and Pr'iDnila qffiviiialis. 



The connnunioation brought before the Society was entitled 

 " A Contribution to our knowledge of the J>otaiiy of New 

 Caledonia." 



The subject of this communication is the collection made by 

 Prof. 1{. JI. CoMPTON in New Caledonia and the Jsle of Pines 

 during 1914, with the aid of money grants from the Eoyal 

 Society, the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund, and the Wort's Trav- 

 elling Fund oT Cambridge University. The specimens collected 

 have been presented to the British Museum, and the greater part 

 have been worked out in the Department of Jiotany at that 

 institution. Since his return, Mr. Compton has been appointed 

 Professor of Botany in the Cape Town University, and Director 

 of the new botanic gardens at Stelleiibosch. The various groups 

 have been elaborated by the following botanists: Ferns and Gym- 

 nos])erms by Prof. E. IT. Comi'TOX, Flowering Plants by ^Jr. 

 E. G. Baker, Mr. Spencer Moore, and Dr. A. B. Kenule, 

 Mosses by Mr. I. Tiieimot, ITepatics by Prof. J. B. Farmer, 

 Maritime Alga) by Mr. A. Gepp, Fi-eshwater Alj^ic by Dr. Nellie 

 Carter, Fungi by Miss E. M. Wakefield, Lichens by Miss A. 

 LoRRAiJf Smith, Characece by Mr. James Groves, and Mycetozoa 

 by Miss G. Lister, 



Dr. liEXDLE gave a short account of the position and physical 

 characters of the island ; and referred to previous work on its 

 flora and its general characters. Important features are the 

 igneous rocks which form a mountain chain of gneiss in the 

 north-east, and the serpentine formation which covers the southern 

 portion and occurs i7i larger or smaller areas throughout the 

 island. The climate is niesothermic ; the rainfall is relatively 

 abundant, but owing to evaporation and the porous nature of the 

 soil, many ])arts of the country have an arid appearance. 



The flora is rich, and the proportion of endemic forms exception- 

 ally high. The relative proportions of the different families of 

 flowering plants in the present collection are very similar to 

 those recently worked out by Mr. Guillaumin for the flora as a 

 whole, the four families which contain the highest number of 

 species being Euphorbiaeea^, llubiacea?, Orchidaceie, and Myrtaceie 

 in each case. The main allinities of the flora are with Indo- 

 ]\ralava and South-East Australia, the former represented chiefly 



