X Trmisactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



entirely different from that of St. Helena, for although both were 

 nearly of the same size, the latter contained more than ten times 

 as many plants as the former, and few of them only, principally 

 weeds, were identical. In St. Helena existed even now, after the 

 devastation of the indigenous flora through the occupation of the 

 island by Europeans, 1,000 flowering plants, of which nearly 100 

 were endemic ; but on the Tristan group the total number of flower- 

 ing plants was only about 30, among which was not a single endemic 

 genus and hardly one undoubtedly distinct endemic species. 



He ascribed this poverty of the flora to the glacial period, during 

 which time the island must have been covered by snow and ice, 

 which destroyed almost the entire vegetation of tertiary times. The 

 islands of this group were during that period probably in a similar 

 state to that in which we find at present the Bouvet Island or the 

 Heard Island ; and when, at the termination of the glacial period, 

 the ice-covering disappeared, a reoccupation of the island by ant- 

 arctic types, by means of seeds brought by birds or ocean-currents, 

 took place, which, together with the few remains of tertiary age, 

 form the present vegetation of the island. Among the plants shown 

 was the little tree, Phylica nitida, the most remarkable one, because 

 this species of the genus occurs only on the Tristan group, including 

 Gough Island, and then some 4,000 miles to the east on Amsterdam 

 Island, also on Mauritius, but not on the African continent, although 

 many other kinds of Phylica are common in the south-western part 

 of Cape Colon}^ There are about 30 ferns on the island, of which 

 ten were exhibited, some of them occurring in South Africa. A 

 couple of so-called sea-beans were shown. They are the seeds of 

 a tropical climbing shrub, and float easily on the water ; hence the 

 ocean-currents bring them to the shores of Tristan as well as to 

 St. Helena. 



Dr. Marloth exhibited some new South African succulents. Among 

 these recently-described species are two of more general interest, 

 viz., Kniphofia tabularis. The "Flora Capensis " mentions 35 

 species from South Africa. Of these one species only is found 

 on the Cape Peninsula, viz., Kniphofla alvoides, the common red- 

 hot poker. Last January, however, this species was discovered by 

 him on some cliffs near the summit of Table Mountain, where its 

 grass-like leaves hang down in bunches six to eight feet long. The 

 shortness of its flowering season, and its restricted occurrence in 

 a few not easily accessible spots, account for the fact that although 

 it is a very handsome plant when in flower it had remained unknown 

 to science until now. 



Mesemhrianthemum simulans. — This new species of mesembrian- 



