VEGETATION OF THE FEEJEE ISLANDS. 669 
Remarks on the Vegetation of the Feejee Islands, Tanna, New 
Ireland, and New Guinea. By RicHARD BnixsLEYv Hinps, 
Esq., Surgeon, R.N. With an enumeration of Plants there 
collected; determined and described by GEORGE BENTHAM, 
Ksa. 
The collections now under consideration were made, as far 
as our limited means would admit, during hasty visits to the 
Feejee Islands, one of the groups of the Friendly Islands, 
Tanna, in the New Hebrides, New Ireland, and New Guinea, 
or Papua. If to these we add the Tonga Archipelago and 
the Moluccas, we have under our notice an extensive region 
situated south of the equator, and intermediate between the 
Polynesian and the Malay Islands, presenting to us peculiar 
characteristics in its vegetation and climate. 
Advancing from east to. west across the Pacific Ocean, the 
changes in the features of the vegetation on arriving at the 
Tonga Islands are very evident. The picturesque scenery of 
the Society and neighbouring islands is exchanged for one of 
more uniformity, and the bare ridges and mountain-sides, 
with their accompanying vallies crowded with trees of small 
growth, are succeeded by a continuous and all-pervading 
forest. A nearer view of the vegetation also displays a corre- 
sponding change in its component parts, as many new forms 
make their appearance, and there is far more variety. For 
the Polynesian flora, though in many respects highly at- 
tractive, is poor for its geographic position, and the Society 
Islands most probably do not possess more than five hun- 
dred species. The Marquesas and Gambier Islands, which 
belong to the same state of flora, exhibit little peculiarity 
and ‘the Sandwich Islands, though with many pec 
species, yet have the mass of their vegetation in common, and 
possess the same features. 
At the same time, the portions of country under our con- 
sideration, and which I have elsewhere* called the Papua or 
* London Journal of Botany, ined. 
