358 Transactions of the South African Philosojjhical Society. 



distributions as given by Mr. Baker, that out of the 440 genera of 

 wild plants 50 are endemic, 22 are Asiatic but not African, while 28 

 are African but not Asiatic. This implies that the more ancient 

 connection has been on the side of Africa, while a more recent 

 immigration, shown by identity of species, has come from the side 

 of Asia ; and it is already certain that when the Flora of Madagascar 

 is more thoroughly worked out, a still greater African preponderance 

 will be found in that island." 



''A few Mascarene genera are found elsewhere only in South 

 America, Australia, or Polynesia ; and there are also a considerable 

 number of genera whose metropolis is South America, but which are 

 represented by one or more species in Madagascar, and by a single 

 often widely spread species in Africa. This fact throws light upon 

 the problem offered by those mammals, reptiles, and insects of 

 Madagascar which have their only allies in South America, since the 

 two cases would be exactly parallel were the African plants to 

 become extinct. Plants, however, are undoubtedly more long-lived 

 specifically than animals — especially the more highly organised 

 groups — and are less liable to complete extinction through the attacks 

 of enemies or through changes of climate or of physical geography. 

 Hence we find comparatively few cases in which groups of Mada- 

 gascar plants have their only allies in such distant regions as 

 America and Australia, while such cases are numerous among 

 animals, owing to the extinction of the allied forms in intervening 

 areas, for which extinction, as we have already shown, ample cause 

 can be assigned." 



" Among the curious affinities of Mascarene plants we have culled 

 the Mlowing from Mr. Baker's volume. Trochetia, a genus of 

 SterculiacecB, has four species in Mauritius, one in Madagascar, and 

 one in the remote island of St. Helena. Mathurina, a genus of 

 Turneracece, consisting of a single species peculiar to Kodriguez, has 

 its nearest ally in another monotype genus, Erhlichia, confined to 

 Central America. Siegesbeckia, one of the GompositcB, consists of 

 two species, one inhabiting the Mascarene Islands, the other Peru. 

 Labour donaisia, a genus of Savotacece, has two species in Mauritius, 

 one in Natal, and one in Cuba. Nesogenes, belonging to the Verbena 

 family, has one species in Eodriguez and one in Polynesia. 

 Mesinlodayhne, an extensive genus of Lauracece, has six species in 

 the Mascarene Islands, and all the rest (about fifty species) in South 

 America. Nepenthes, the well-known pitcher plants, are found 

 chiefly in the Malay Islands, South China, and Ceylon, with 

 species in the Seychelles Islands, and in Madagascar. Milla, a 

 large genus of LiliacecB, is exclusively American, except one species. 



