54 THE WORLD OF LIFE CHAP. 



on the earth's surface. In bird-life it seems likely to surpass 

 any other equal area, and it may do so in plants also, but in 

 the luxuriance of insect-life I am inclined to think that it 

 will not equal the richest portions of equatorial America. 



The only other tropical flora in the eastern hemisphere 

 included in my table is that of Queensland, which is mostly 

 within the tropics, but a large part of the interior consists of 

 elevated plains with a rather arid climate where little of the 

 luxuriance of tropical vegetation is to be met with. Probably 

 not more than one-fourth of the area is clothed with a typical 

 tropical vegetation, but this has as yet been very partially 

 explored botanically. The number of species compares best 

 with that of the Indian peninsula, with which it agrees 

 nearest in area ; and both these countries, though very rich 

 in certain districts, cannot be considered to present examples 

 of the full luxuriance of tropical vegetation. 



Floras of Tropical Africa and America 



The floras of the remainder of the tropics are, for 

 various reasons, of less interest for the purposes of this work 

 than those of the eastern hemisphere, and a very brief 

 reference to them will be here given. Although Africa has 

 a tropical area nearly equalling those of Asia and America 

 combined, it has a flora of less extent and of less botanical 

 interest than that of either of them. Its area of luxuriant 

 tropical forest is comparatively of small extent, and much of 

 it is yet unexplored, so that the number of species in the 

 latest enumeration is perhaps more than might have been 

 expected. The islands belonging to Africa Madagascar, 

 Mauritius, Bourbon, and the Seychelles are, however, of 

 extreme interest, on account of the remarkable character, 

 as well as the extreme speciality, both of their plants and 

 animals. As, however, these peculiarities have been rather 

 fully discussed in chapter xix. of my Island Life, it is not 

 necessary to repeat them here. I may state, however, that 

 in Mauritius there are about 40 peculiar genera, nearly all 

 of shrubs or trees, while no less than 5 peculiar genera of 

 palms are found in the Seychelle Islands. The following 

 table of the sequence of orders in Madagascar may be of 

 interest for comparison with those of other large floras. 



