944 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGED. 
and the Cedar (Juniperus bermudiana), both of which are tenacious of life, and possess 
remarkable reproductive capacity ; neglected ground being soon overrun by seedlings, 
especially of the latter. 
“ Passing by St. Paul’s Rocks, where neither flowering plants nor ferns exist, the 
flora of Fernando Noronha, as far as it is known, exhibits the same affinities to that of 
the nearest mainland as the flora of the Bermudas. Fifty-five species of flowering- 
plants were collected, five of which appear sufficiently different from any described ones 
to rank as new ; all the rest are quite common plants. The apparently total absence 
of ferns in this flora is remarkable. 
“The indigenous vegetation of Ascension is of the scantiest description imaginable; 
even littoral plants, on account of the nature of the beach, are unable to obtain a 
footing on the island. Ferns, of which eleven species have been collected, are in the 
ascendant. There are, however, two flowering plants ( Hedyotis adscensionis and 
Euphorbia origanoides), which have not been found elsewhere ; altogether there are not 
more than half a dozen indigenous species. 
“ The flora of St. Helena is very singular in its composition. There are thirty-eight 
certainly indigenous flowering plants, and twenty-five ferns, besides about twenty-five 
other species of flowering plants which may have reached the island independently of 
direct or indirect human agency. With few exceptions the indigenous flowering plants 
are shrubs or small trees, and a considerable proportion of them belong to genera 
restricted to the island, whilst some of the species of genera having a wider range are so 
very distinct from their congeners as not to be generically recognisable as such at first 
sight. Arboreous Composite preponderated, and there is abundant evidence that they 
formerly constituted the principal element of the woods which covered the island. Dis- 
regarding these Composite, some of which are resiniferous, like those of Juan Fernandez, 
the affinities 'of the native flora are essentially South African ; and structurally, if not in 
habit, the Composite are as nearly related to South African forms as to any others. 
“ The natural history of South Trinidad is still almost unknown. Not a dozen 
flowering plants and ferns have been collected in the islands, and the most interesting of 
these is a Fern ( Asplenium compressum), previously known only from St. Helena. The 
latest accounts of the vegetation of the island describe the whole of the arboreous 
plants, except a tree fern, as prostrate and dead, as if all had been killed at one time 
by some great volcanic disturbance. 
“ Next in order is the Tristan da Cimlia group, where the vegetation consists 
entirely of types characteristic of temperate regions. In the three islands, Tristan 
da Cunlni, Inaccessible, and Nightingale, fifty-five species of vascular plants have 
been collected by various travellers, and of this number no fewer than twenty-four are 
ferns and two club-mosses, leaving twenty-nine flowering plants. There is no endemic 
genus of plants, but fifteen of the species of flowering plants appear to be restricted to 
