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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIII 



pedition amounted to sixty-two, of which twelve were 

 pteridophytes and fifty phanerogams. The ferns still 

 predominated in number of individuals. 



A third party visited the island in 1905, but the results 

 of this expedition have not yet been published. 



A very full account of the present flora is given by 

 Ernst (pp. 37 to 48). In the three expeditions the results 

 of which have been published a total of 137 species is re- 

 corded. While a very large majority of these are phaner- 

 ogams, representatives of all the principal groups of 

 plants have been collected. In the earlier expeditions 

 the preponderance of ferns, as we have seen, was very 

 noticeable, but at present this is not the case and they 

 have largely given place to the more aggressive phanero- 

 gams. We collected only six species of ferns and one of 

 Lycopodium, the wide spread L. cernuum, while on the 

 first and second expeditions eleven species were noted, 

 and although it is true that we failed to reach the center 

 of the island, where in all probability other species would 

 have been encountered, it may be noted that we collected 

 seventy- three species of phanerogams against forty-eight 

 species recorded at the time of the second expedition. 



Of the lower plants only two species of mosses have 

 been collected and a single species of antheroceros (this 

 was found only on the second expedition). We found 

 the two species of mosses growing fairly abundantly, but 

 no liverworts. Whether the latter grow in the central 

 part of the island remains to be seen, but it is highly 

 probable that some of the very numerous species of Java 

 and Sumatra will be found there. The scarcity of bryo- 

 phytes is remarkable, as it is generally assumed that their 

 spores are readily disseminated; and the contrast with 

 the ferns which so quickly colonized the island is most 

 striking. Three species of fleshy fungi have been col- 

 lected and a considerable number of species of diatoms 

 and blue-green algae were among the earliest settlers of 

 the island. 



Professor Ernst made some interesting studies on the 



