246 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. L^^^. 



Mauritius. The palm, Lcdania Loddifjesii, Mart., is 

 endemic in liound Island, Flat Island, and Coin de Mire, 

 but not in Mauritius. The screw-pine, Fcaidanus Vander- 

 meerschii, Balf. fil., is endemic in Eound Island, Flat 

 Island, Coin de ^lire. Amber Island, and probably in He 

 Vakois, but not in ^Mauritius. Trichosandra horhonica, 

 Dene., belonging to the Asclepiadacere, is found in Eound 

 Island, but not in any of the other islands of the Mauritius 

 group. It is native, however, in Bourbon, 100 miles dis- 

 tant. Of the species that have been identified, two only 

 are endemic in Eound Island and found in no other part of 

 the world, viz., the Bottle Palm, Hyrypliorbe amaricaulis. 

 Mart., and Sdagindla Barldyi, Baker ; and even this small 

 number, I think, must be reduced to one, for in a note on 

 specimens of >S'. olh'.sa, Spring, forwarded by me from 

 Eound Island to Kew, ]\Ir. Baker writes : " I am afraid 

 *S' BarMyi is only an extreme form of dbtusa." I did 

 not find S. BarUyi in Eound Island ; but all the plants 

 of S. oUv.sa I observed in Eound Island were much smaller 

 and had smaller leaves than the plants of the same species 

 observed by me iii Mauritius. Baker, in his " Flora of 

 Mauritius and the Seychelles," writes with reference to two 

 species of Diospyros from Eound Island, that both " may 

 likely prove, when fully known, distinct from the Mauritian 

 species." The leguminous plant and Phyllanthv.s found by 

 me in Eound Island, but not identified, do not agree with 

 the description of any species described in Baker's " Flora 

 of Mauritius and the Seychelles." 



In a few places groups of palms and Pandani have 

 retained the soil by means of their numerous adventi- 

 tious roots ; but in most places these trees and the other 

 plants grow on the bare rocks, their roots descending 

 through the vertical cracks and then .spreading out to great 

 distances between the stratified layers of volcanic tufif'. 

 In some of the plants I dug up, the roots exceeded the 

 stems several times in length. In dry weather the plants 

 suffer from drought, on account of the greater part of the 

 rain-water flowing down the steep, rocky slopes into the 

 sea immediately after falling on the island. On. the lower 

 slopes on the west side of the island I observed many 

 shrubs of Fernelia hv.xifolia, Lam., dead from the effects 



