CHAP. XIX.] 



THE MADAGASCAE GllOUP. 



411 



Among the most prominent cliaracteristics of tlie Mada- 

 gascar flora is the possession of a peculiar and isolated family, 

 Chlsenaceae, allied somewhat to the balsams, but presenting very 

 anomalous characters. It consists of four genera and a number 

 of species all entirely confined to the island. They are hand- 

 some trees or shrubs, mostly with showy red flowers. One of 

 them, Bliodolcena altivola, is a semi-scandent shrub with magni- 

 ficent campanulate flow^ers the size of a camellia and of a 

 brilliant purple colour. The genus Chrysopia consists of large 

 forest trees with spreading crowns adorned with umbels or co- 

 rymbs of large purple flowers. It belongs to the Clusiacese, and 

 is most nearly allied to the South American genus Moronobea. 

 The Colvillea, a peculiar genus of Leguminosse, is a tree with 

 splendid scarlet flowers; and there are a large number of 

 other peculiar genera more or less remarkable, Combretaceee 

 with splendid flowers abound in Madagascar itself, though they 

 are rare in the Mascarene islands ; while the Ravenala, or 

 " traveller's tree ; " the extraordinary lattice-leaved Ouvirandra ; 

 the Poinciana regia, one of the most gorgeous of flowering trees ; 

 and the long-spurred Angrcccum sesquipedale, one of the most 

 elegant and remarkable of orchids, are among its vegetable 

 wonders. ^ 



Of the flora of the smaller Madagascarian islands we possess 

 a much fuller account, owing to the recent publication of Mr. 

 Baker's Flora of the Mcairitius and the Seychelles, including also 

 Rodriguez. The total number of species in this flora is 1,058, 

 more than half of which (586) are exclusively Mascarene — that 

 is, found only in some of the islands of the Madagascar group, 

 while nearly a third (304) are endemic or confined to single islands. 

 Of the widespread plants sixty-six are found in Africa but net 

 in Asia, and eighty-six in Asia but not in Africa, showing a similar 

 Asiatic preponderance to what is said to occur in Madagascar. 

 With the genera, however, the proportions are different, for I 

 find by going through the whole of the generic distributions as 

 given by Mr. Baker, that out of the 440 genera of wild plants 



1 This sketch of the Flora of Madagascar is taken chiefly from a series 

 of articles by M. Emile Blanchard in the Revue des Deux Mondes. Vol. 

 CI. (1872). 



