20 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



119. The Equatorial Forest Region of Sumatra and Borneo. 

 Including the intervening Southern extreme of the peninsula of 

 Malacca, and also the island of Java. 



120. The MiNDANAYAN Forest Region. Including the whole South- 

 ern portion of the Philippine Islands, the scattered islets in and around 

 the Sooloo Sea, and the extreme Northern portion of Borneo. 



121. The Equatorial Forest Region of Celebes and the Molucca 

 Islands. Including Gilolo and the Western peninsular portion of 

 New Guinea, with possibly, the whole series of islands to the South- 

 ward, from Sumbawa to the Aroo Islands. 



122. The Eastern and main portion of New Guinea. Including 

 perhaps New Britain, New Ireland, the Louisiade, and the Solomon 

 Group of islands. 



123. The Island-Region of the New Hebrides and New Caledonia. 

 Perhaps susceptible of subdivision. New Caledonia being described as 

 " chiefly devoid of forests." 



124. The Feejeean Island- Region. Including in the North, Rotu- 

 ma, Hoorn Island, and Ilea, and to the Southward and Eastward, the 

 widely-scattered Tonga Group of islands. A region probably contain- 

 ing more than a thousand peculiar species of plants. 



125. The Samoan Island-Region. Perhaps confined to the narrow 

 limits of the Samoan or Navigator Group of islands: the climate 

 there proving more rainy than that of any other part of the globe 

 we visited. A region probably containing two or three hundred pecu- 

 liar species of plants. 



The coral-islands being excluded, as contributing to the distant dif- 

 fusion of only a certain set of plants, species that are more or less 

 submaritime, the remaining island-regions of the Pacific may be enu- 

 merated as follows : 



126. The Taheitian Island-Region. Including the Hervey or 

 Raratonga Group of islands. A region probably containing as many 

 as two or three hundred peculiar species of plants. 



127. The Region of Pitcairn's Island and the Gambier Group. 

 Including other small volcanic islands in the vicinity, with perhaps 

 the scattered Lapan Group, a little outside of the Tropic. Probably 

 affording a few peculiar species of plants, or a trace of a botanical 

 region distinct from the preceding. Some change in climate is mani- 

 fest; Pitcairn's Island being exposed to occasional long-continued 

 drought. 



