832 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
weighs 800 pounds, and is gaid to be able to carry a weight of two 
‘tons on its back. 
_ GuneraL CHARACTER OF THE Frora.—But when we come to deal 
with the botany of the island a great many of the facts point in an 
entirely different direction. No special work on the flora of Mada- 
gascar has yet been written, but taking the species that have been 
described in general monographs and scattered papers in the 
to these the species contained in the Kew Her arium, including 
five or six parcels that have been received from different sources 
plants, has proved, I should not be at all surprised if the number 
of flowering plants inhabiting the island should ultimately be 
raised to 4000 or 5000; so that of course all the remarks that 
follow must be considered as founded on a botany that is perhaps 
not more than half-known. But looking at the catalogue of 5 
gascar plants, as it stands according to present knowledge, as & 
whole, the first point that strikes the mind is how thoroughly the 
general plan of the flora follows the same lines as that of other 
tropical regions of the Old World. This may be illustrated in 
various ways, as follows :—In the first place by taking the natural 
orders one by one, and noting how nearly they run parallel in 
Madagascar and the adjacent tropical areas. 
e following Table shows the number of the genera and species 
of each natural order of Thalamiflore known in Mauritius, Mada- 
gascar, Continental Tropical Africa, and India apart from the Hima- 
layas. Out of fifty-five known orders of Thalamiflore only eight 
are not here represented; out of these forty-seven, thirty-seven 
are already discovered in Madagascar. Of the ten orders not yet 
known in Madagascar none are known in Mauritius proper, but 
two are represented by single species in the Seychelles. 
them are confined to Tropical Asia, and one to Tropical Africa ; 
but the other seven are common to both continents. 
