-204 BOTANICAL NOTES. 



o7 birds fell to the guns of Lieutenant Heming and Lieutenant 

 Leeper ; and it is to these two officers that I am indebted for my 

 opportunities of collecting the fruits taken from the crops of these 

 pigeons. 



In drawing my botanical remarks to a close, it may be fitting to 

 recall the more lasting impressions which I have received of the 

 vegetation of these islands ; and I may do so in a very few words. 

 The characteristic features of the vefjetation are to be found in the 

 number and variety of the areca palms ; in the abundance of the 

 alpinias, heliconias, and other scitainineous plants ; in the imposing 

 size and form of the banyans and the buttress trees ; and in the pro- 

 fusion of the ferns. 1 have not previously dwelt upon the important 

 ])art Avhich the ferns take in the vegetation of these islands, because 

 I had hoped to have heard something of my collection which I pre- 

 sented to the British Museum eighteen months ago ; but, to my 

 great chagrin, I have been unable, after repeated application, to 

 learn anything concerning it. I may here state that ferns abound 

 everywhere; in moist and dry situations ; in sheltered and exposed 

 districts ; now decking the tree-trunks with their draperies^ or con- 

 cealing the unsightliness of the decaying log ; here covering the bare 

 slopes of some lofty hill-top, or clothing the surface of some treeless 

 tract. The tree-fern and the wide-spreading Angiopteris are to be 

 found on the banks of streams or in some inland dell. The former 

 avoids the coast, and occurs at all elevations up to 2000 feet and 

 over : it flourishes at the heads of vallevs. 



LIST OF PLANTS COLLECTED IN THE ISLANDS OF 

 BOUGAINVILLE STRAITS, SOLOMON GROUP, 

 DURING 1884.1 



anonace;e. 

 U varia, sp. . . vulgo " Nakia." A stout climber. 



GUTTlFERiE. 



Ochrocaj'pus ovalifolius, T. And v. (Calysacciou) tinctorium, Seem. ? 



viilgo " Kokoilo." A, littoral tree about thirty feet high. 

 Caloplijllum Inophylliun, L., vulgo " Bogoau." 



^ I am mainly indebted to tlic kindness of Professor Oliver for the list of the plants col- 

 lected by me in the Solomon Islands, most of which were sent to Kcw. The ferns are in the 

 British Museum, but I can learn nothing of them. Fortunately, the fungi were not included ; 

 and for a list of them I am indebted to Mr. Baker. Most of the orcliids, and some of the 

 asclepiads, were 2;iven bv me to Baron von Mueller, who intends to examine them in connec 



