l6o JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



resting because it includes some plants whose nearest allies are 

 natives of New Zealand. The island is about 300 miles from Port 

 Macquarie, the nearest point of the Australian mainland, in 31 u 30' 

 S. latitude. It is seven miles long, with an average breadth of about 

 a mile, and the basalt mountains rise to a height of nearly 3000 feet. 

 The soil is fertile, and is, or rather was, everywhere covered with 

 vegetation. The scenery is beautiful ; the climate is described as 

 unsurpassable, and a great future is predicted for the island as a 

 sanatorium, "when the Australian colonies become more densely 

 inhabited." Without waiting for the time when Australia will be 

 crowded with inhabitants, Lord Howe Island might be made a 

 pleasant holiday resort, involving just enough of a sea voyage to be 

 exciting and exhilarating, and not long enough to be monotonous. 



The most complete account of the flora yet published is by Mr. 

 Charles Moore, Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, N.S.W., 

 though many of the new plants then — 1869 — collected by him have 

 since been published in various books and periodicals. The domi- 

 nating feature in the vegetation is composed of palms, of which there 

 are three or four species peculiar to this island — a condition of things 

 paralleled in remote insular floras only in the Seychelles. Next in 

 interest and prominence are the four or five endemic species of tree 

 ferns, which, however, we are informed, in the illustrated report 

 referred to, by the Hon. J. Bowie Wilson (botany by Mr. J. Duff), 

 are fast disappearing from the lowlands, and will soon be extinct if 

 their removal is not absolutely prohibited. In this connection one is 

 gratified to find both the chief of the Commission of Exploration, and 

 the botanist attached thereto, strongly urging the Government to 

 take active steps to preserve the beautiful vegetation of the island, and 

 especially to make no concessions, nor grant any leases that might 

 entail any further destruction of the woods. Commonest among 

 the other trees are Hibiscus Patersonii, Myoporum acuminatum, and 

 Ochrosia elliptica— all three Australian trees ; one or more species of 

 Ficus, and one or more endemic species of screw-pine. One of the 

 vegetable wonders of the island is a huge banyan-tree (Ficus sp.), said 

 to cover three acres of ground ; but no particulars are given of this 

 remarkable tree, beyond a photograph of a portion of it. This is 

 rather disappointing, because of all the famous banyan-trees in India, 

 some of which are encouraged by artificial means in the development 

 of the aerial descending roots, which eventually become auxiliary 

 trunks, few surpass in size this one, on such a speck of an island. 

 The celebrated banyan between Poona and Kolapore, in the Bombay 

 Presidency, is, indeed, the only one, of which 1 have found a record, 

 that covers a greater area than the Lord Howe Island banyan, and 

 that, according to measurements given of the spread of its branches, 

 must cover between six and seven acres. 



In striking contrast to the flora of Australia, the flora of Lord 

 Howe Island, like that of New Zealand, contains exceedingly few 

 species of the large natural order Leguminosa;. Out of five species 

 collected, three are common sea- side plants that often establish 

 themselves on a shore from seeds cast up by the waves. Of the 

 other two, one belongs to the otherwise exclusively New Zealand 

 genus Carmichaelia, and the other, Sophora chrysophyUa, is also a 



