232 



A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC 



CHAP. 



species, and in the small proportion of genera possessing no 

 peculiar species. There is an endemic element of greater or less 

 degree in about 70 per cent, of the Hawaiian genera, whilst in Fiji 

 only about 53 per cent, and in Tahiti as few as 34 per cent, of the 

 genera contain to a varying extent peculiar species. Another 

 feature brought out in this table is the relative poverty of genera 

 in the Hawaiian Islands. Fiji, though about the same size as 

 Hawaii, contains nearly half as many genera again, whilst the 

 islands of the Tahitian region, which in the aggregate amount to 

 only one-third or one-fourth of the area of the islands of Hawaii, 

 possess nearly as many genera. 



Table A (Flowering Plants). 



Proportions of Endemic Species in the Hawaiian, Fijian, and Tahitian floras, with those 

 for Samoa, Tonga, and Rarotonga added. 



Remarks. — The materials for this table have been obtained 

 from the works of Hillebrand for Hawaii, Seemann and Home for 

 Fiji, Drake del Castillo for Tahiti, Reinecke for Samoa, Hemsley 

 and Burkill for Tonga, and Cheescman for Rarotonga. The two 

 estimates for Fiji are marked S. for Seemann and H. for Home, 

 the last being a rough preliminary computation made by Home 

 himself 



The results given are only to be considered as approximations 

 liable to emendation, but as regards the proportion of endemic 

 species in the several groups they no doubt illustrate fairly well the 

 relative degree of endemism in the various archipelagoes. The 

 results for Samoa, Tonga, and Rarotonga are merely added in 

 order to enable a comparison to be made with sub-groups of a 



