INTRODUCTION. XXTX 
Fragmentary Notes and Observations. 
T have abstained as much as possible from generalizing, in 
describing a species have selected the most common 
which it is represented, or, where previous accurate descriptions 
existed, have adopted this as the typical form, to which the 
deviating ones are appended as varieties, each circumscribed by 
its geographical limits. Only in this way it seemed to me that 
confusion could be avoided in determining species which are 
separated by comparatively light characters and have a tendency 
to vary extraordinarily within this narrow range. That thus 
different species will closely touch each-other with their most 
outlying varieties cannot surprise us and is quite in harmony 
with the prevailing views of our times; and, in fact, with many 
forms it must appear in a measure arbitrary to which of the 
contiguous species they shall be referred. In fact, the evolution 
theory could hardly find a more favorable field for observation. 
than an isolated island-group in mid-ocean, large enough to have 
produced a number of original forms and at the same time so 
diversified in conditions of temperature, humidity, and atmo- 
spheric currents as to admit an extraordinary development in 
nearly every direction of vegetable morphology, uninfluenced by 
intercrossing with foreign elements. 
Systematic science does not mean to separate what was ori- 
ginally distinct, but to find the most logical terms by which to 
separate, and thereby render acceptable to the understanding, a 
mass of facts or products originally one or few. In Nature exists 
unity; but the mind requires division to comprehend, dividing 
lines to combine in units what lies between. 
Hawaiian Islands the -only Polynesian Island group which 
contain a large proportion of indigenous plants with American 
affinities. Compositae of Tahiti allied to Malaysian types. 
* : * * * 
Australian genera or types which are wanting or very scantily 
represented in the intermediate island groups: Scaevola, Isotoma, 
Pittosporum. 
Bs * * # # 
