2 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION 



be obtained. His conclusion was that the specimens before him indicated the existence 

 of a large insect fauna which was practically untouched by us or by any previous 

 collector, and he strongly advised sending a properly trained entomologist to the 

 islands. As Prof. Brauer had spent many months in the islands particularly investi- 

 gating their Ccecilians (Gymnophiona), we naturally expected to find few or no new 

 Vertebrates. Yet Mr G. A. Boulenger (see Report, pp. 491-300) described two new 

 genera. 



The botany of the Seychelles had been worked out by J. G. Baker in 1877 (Flora 

 of Mauritius and the Seychelles), from collections made by J. Home in 1871 and 1874, 

 but many new species and genera had subsequently been described by Mr W. Botting 

 Hemsley mainly on collections and individual plants sent home by Mr H. P. Thomasset. 

 It seemed to us essential in considering the relationship of the group to other lands 

 to consider the plants geographically but there seemed to be such considerable un- 

 certainty as to the completeness of Home's collections that a fresh investigation of 

 the flora seemed essential. A thorough account of the flora too is necessary to the 

 entomologist. For completeness also a further investigation of the geography and 

 rocks of the islands was advisable. 



Considering all the above points we decided to undertake the land investigation 

 of the Seychelles as soon as possible. This was the more necessary as the jungle was 

 getting to be more and more constricted year by year owing to the planting of vanilla. 

 For this orchid a stretch of jungle is cleared, though not generally burnt. The vines 

 are placed a few feet apart and stakes, or stick-like cuttings, of various plants 

 stuck into the ground for their support. The plantation lasts for about 12 years 

 when it is either cleared for manioc (cassava) cultivation or more often allowed to go 

 back to jungle. Unfortunately this secondary jungle has a flora largely foreign as the 

 supports grown for the vanillas are mostly introduced trees and shrubs. Cinnamon 

 too, once planted but now wild, always enters, killing every thing under its pungent 

 leaves except the coarsest ferns. In such original jungle, too, as remained all the 

 larger timber trees were cut, or being cut. This produces an enormous change, light 

 being brought in to the smaller trees and herbs which cover the ground. Heat and 

 rain more easily reach the ground, and on steep hillsides this results in the formation 

 of bare patches of rock, "glacis" as they are termed. An island naturally becomes 

 jungle-covered from the shore up to the highest peaks, while man plants from the 

 hills downwards. The lower slopes must be cleared for cultivation, and the salvation 

 of any island is to leave the upper slopes absolutely untouched as long as possible. 

 Their jungle is like a sponge which keeps all below it more or less moist in the 

 tropical heat. The hilltops at much expense may be planted again with other, 

 particularly leguminose, trees, but such artificial jungle is never the same thing and 

 it is questionable whether a fresh sponge-reservoir of water can be formed. It is 

 the destruction of its jungles which has turned St Helena into a desert, and the 

 same process is going on now in the Seychelles. This warning is perhaps the more 

 necessary to-day, as, not only in the Seychelles but in many other islands as well, 

 rubber lianes, cloves and cinnamon are being introduced as mountain plants. The 



