Ji:ly1894.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



245 



is probable that additional species will be found if the 

 island is visited at another season of the year. 



Of the 50 native species of plants, the Dicotyledons 

 include 24 species, or almost half of the total number. 

 There are 12 species of Monocotyledons, so that these are 

 exactly in the proportion of one to two of the Dicotyledons, 

 which is also the proportion of these two classes to each 

 other in the flora of Mauritius. There are 14 species of 

 Cryptogams, only 3 of which were observed by the other 

 botanists prior to my visit in 1889. The 52 species 

 belong to 28 natural orders, or less than 2 species to an 

 order on an average. The number of species in the larger 

 orders are Lichenes 6, Gramineaj 5, and Ebenacete, Euphor- 

 biace?e, and Palmse 3 each. 



Bojer, in his " Hortus Mauritianus," published in 1837, 

 records 2 species of plants from Eound Island, but Bojer 

 never visited the island himself; Lloyd records 12 species 

 by their vernacular names ; Pike 1 1 species ; P)arkly and 

 Home 29 species; and myself 39 species. Of the 39 

 species observed and collected by me, 20, or fully half, 

 were not observed by the other botanists. On the other 

 hand, of the total 52 species recorded from Eound Island, 

 13 were not observed by me; but, as I have already 

 stated, some of these latter are probably identical with plants 

 collected by me and recorded under different specific names. 



The type of the flora is essentially Mauritian, but many 

 of the plants found in Eound Island depart considerably 

 from the type of the same species in ]^,rauritius. So far 

 as the plants have been identified, most of the Eound 

 Island species are also native in Mauritius, but it is 

 probable that several of the species which have not been 

 identified may turn out to be new, and not occur in 



