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extremely peculiar. Hardly anything had been done 

 in the way of exploring its flora during the last thirty 

 years, and from the beginning of time hardly anything 

 had been done by the English in that direction, the 

 work having been performed by the French, Botanists 

 were acquainted with about two thousand plants 

 which grew in Madagascar, and he had made out a 

 list containing the names of that number. These two 

 thousand species belonged to about six hundred 

 genera, and those six huudred genera belonged to 

 about one hundred and twenty natural orders. Out 

 of the two hundred and twenty natural orders which 

 were known to botanists, about one hundred and 

 twenty, or rather more than half, were found in 

 Madagascar. The flora was so extremely rich that 

 the two thousand plants which were known were, 

 perhaps, not more than half of those which occurred 

 in the island. The central portion of the island was 

 elevated, and, throughout the island, the ground varied 

 from the sea level to a height of about 10,000 feet. 

 The consequence was that there, as in India, there 

 was a great variety of climate, and an extremely rich 

 flora. During the last four or five years, Dr Parker 

 and Mr Baron had sent home probably no less than 

 from one thousand to one thousand five hundred 

 species of plants, the specimens of which were at Kew. 

 About 60 to 70 per cent, of the species found in 

 Madagascar were altogether peculiar to that island. 

 Imagine a part of the world where there were three 



