FLORA OF SEYCHELLES AND 

 ALDABRA : 



New Phanerogamia, chiefly of the Percy Sladen Trust 

 Expedition, with some Emendations in Synonymy. 



By W. BOTTING HEMSLEY, LL.D., F.E.S. 



Fifteen years have elapsed since I began studying the flora of 

 Seychelles in my official capacity at Kew, and since 1901 various 

 collections, small and large, have been received at Kew for 

 classification and publication. All of the collectors have been more 

 or less associated in the botanical exploration of those islands ; 

 therefore a few words of explanation seem desirable to make 

 matters clear. In 1901 the late Dr. A. F. W. Schimper, Botanist 

 of the German Deep Sea Expedition (1898-1899), sent to Kew 

 dried specimens of about a score of Seychelles plants, prepared by 

 the Hon. H. P. Thomasset, a proprietor in Mahe, with the request 

 that they should be named, and any new species described for 

 publication in the Beports on the Expedition. The Director of 

 Kew placed this collection in my hands for determination and 

 report. This report was written and sent to Dr. Anheisser in 1902, 

 and, so far as I am aware, the enumeration and descriptions have 

 not been published by the German authorities. The report con- 

 tained one or two descriptions and some emendations of synonymy. 

 In the meantime Dr. Schimper had died, and the correspondence 

 was continued by Dr. H. Schenck and Dr. E. Anheisser. Subse- 

 quently Kew entered into direct correspondence with the Hon. 

 H. P. Thomasset, who presented the Herbarium from time to time 

 with excellent specimens of between two and three hundred species 

 of Seychelles flowering plants and ferns, a number of which were 

 new to science and have been pubhshed in Hooker's Icones 

 Plantarum and the Keio Bulletin. Subsequently the much more 

 extensive collections made by the Percy Sladen Expedition in 1905, 

 and further collections made by Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner and Mr. 

 J. C. F. Fryer, of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, were received 

 at Kew. Mr. P. R. Dupont, the Curator of the Botanic Station 

 at Mahe, has also been a considerable contributor. All the 

 specimens thus received were consolidated, and I began studying 

 the collection during my last years at Kew, with the intention of 

 drawing up in my retirement an enumeration of all the vascular 

 plants known from the islands. Various untoward events have 

 Journal of Botany, April, 1916. [Supplement II.] h 



