[Crown Copyright Reserved. 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
No. 6] [1917 
XXI.—ENNEAPOGON MOLLIS IN ASCENSION 
. ISLA 
O. Srapr. 
(With Plate.) 
Sir Joseph Hooker in his ‘‘ Lecture on Insular Floras’’ gives 
the following description of Ascension and its vegetation : — 
“St. Helena has been called a barren rock, but it is a paradise 
as compared with Ascension, which consists of a scorched mass 
of volcanic matter, in part resembling bottle glass, and in part 
coke and cinders. A small green peak, 2800 feet above the sea, 
monopolises nearly all the vegetation, which consists of Purslane*, 
a grass”, and a Euphorbia? in the lower parts of the island, whilst 
the green peak is clothed with a carpet of ferns, and here and 
there a shrub‘, allied to but different from any St. Helena one. 
There are nine ferns, of which no less than six differ from those 
of St. Helena, and three of them are entirely confined to the 
islet.”” This account takes only the endemic vegetation into con- 
sideration. To it has to be added a small number of plants which 
uave more or less established themselves since the island has been 
inhabited and attempts at cultivation have been made. Large 
parts nevertheless have remained an absolute desert, especially 
along the coast and the lower parts generally. In June of this 
year, however, a remarkable change has been brought to our 
notice by the Director of Victualling, Admiralty, who sent to the 
irector a copy of a letter from the Farm Superintendent, 
Ascension Island, together with a specimen of a grass and the 
appeared in great abundance on the lower parts of the island. It 
first appeared to windward of the plain which the wide-a-wakes 
(sooty terns) frequent during their periodical visits, and has spread 
from there by the prevailing south-east trade wind to the Garrison 
ieee 
' Portulacca oleracea, L. ° Euphorbia origanoides, L. 
* Aristida adscensionis, L. * Hedyotis adscensionis, 
(5069.) Wt. 1502699, 1,125. 10/17. J.T. &S., Ltd. G14. 
