889 



in some parts clothes the flat, moist, meadow-Hke turf with so thick a 

 verdure, that, when in blossom, it looks, at a distance, like a field of 

 thyme ; the silvery foliage of the graceful Rhus succedaneum flutters 

 in the breeze, Srailax glabra straggles over the rocks, Lygodium 

 japonicum and the leafless, parasitical, intertangled Cassyta filiforrais* 

 climb over all shrubs indiscriminately, the latter perfidiously abstract- 

 ing the sap, with its cup-like suckers, from those plants from which 

 it claims support ; and the abundant, pectinated Gleichenia dicho- 

 toma, with Pteris nemoralis, Adiantum amoenum, Nephrolepis tube- 

 rosa, and other ferns, spring up among the herbage. 



Finally, to descend to the lower classes of the vegetable world, the 

 few mosses which are found consist of species of Hypnura, Neckera, 

 Fissidens, Trematodon, and Physcomitrium ; the exposed masses of 

 syenite are occasionally clothed with a foliaceous lichen, apparently 

 a species of Parmelia ; a handsome crimson Phallus, covered with a 

 foetid gelatinous matter, and various agariciform Fungi, spring up 

 meteorically amidst the grass, in the hot and damp summer months ; 

 whilst Polyporus sanguineus and a few others are met with on the 

 bark of trees; and the common mushroom has of late appeared spon- 

 taneously, in immense quantities, in a flat, meadow-like valley to the 

 east of the town used as a race-ground, and for the training and 

 exercising of horses. The rocks and sands along the coast afford a 

 a few Sargassa, and a Corallina, which seem to constitute all, or 

 nearly all, the Algae. 



The most noticeable feature in the Flora of this island, is the mix- 

 ture of Asiatic and European forms, especially conspicuous in the 

 vernal vegetation of the hill-summits. In this respect, it appears to 

 approach closely to that of Cashmere. Its connexion with that of 



* Though perhaps rather irrelevant to the occasion, I here embrace the opportu- 

 nity of correcting an oversight which Prof. Ernst Meyer has committed in a note 

 (p. 120) to his edition of the treatise ' De Plantis,' by Nicolas, of Damascus (Lips. 

 1841), where, in attempting to identify the YvpiaKov ftoraviov, KxaauTag, or Ka^oTccg 

 of Theophrastus, which he presumes, after rejecting the claims of Cuscuta monogyna, 

 to be the Usnea florida ! he remarks that he is acquainted with no other twining 

 parasitic plants inhabiting the East. But there is no doubt that the plant referred to, 

 and which is also noticed by Pliny, is the present one, described by Forskal, under 

 the name of Volutella aphylla (Gfr. Sprengel, Hist. Kei Herb. i. 90). Fraas also 

 (' Synopsis Florae Classica; ') erroneously refers the xa^uTccg, though with a mark of 

 doubt, to Cuscuta epilinum. Situation exercises a great influence on Cassyta, for I 

 possess a specimen, gathered close by the sea-shore on Prata Island, south coast of 

 China, which is much fleshier and stouter in its proportions, and has altogether the 

 appearance of a diflferent species, though I believe in no wise distinct. 



VOL. IV. 5 X 



