New Solomon Islands Plants, 
BY 
W. B. HEMSLEY, F.R.S. 
Principal Assistant , Herbarium , Royal Gardens , Keiv, 
With Plate XXVII, 
HE Solomon Islands are situated in the tropics, between 
-i- the Admiralty Islands and the New Hebrides, and extend 
over an area of 600 miles in length, trending from north-west 
to south-east Several of the larger islands are from 50 to 
100 miles in length, and 15 to 30 miles in breadth ; and, 
speaking generally, are of volcanic origin and mountainous in 
character, the mountains rising to an altitude of 8000 feet in 
Guadalcanal', in the south, and to an altitude of 10,000 feet in 
Bougainville, in the north. On the other hand many of the 
small islands are entirely of coral limestone. 
Many expeditions have visited the Solomon Islands, includ- 
ing D’Urville in 1838, and Denham (H.M.S. Herald) in 1853, 
and there are many allusions to the vegetation in the writings 
of various travellers ; but even now the botany is very im- 
perfectly known. William Milne, who was attached to the 
‘Herald’ in the capacity of botanical collector for Kew, 
collected about 200 plants on the islands of San Christoval 
and Guadalcanar, but they were mostly common things from 
the coast region. A more representative collection of dried 
plants made in the north-western part of the group by 
Dr. H. B. Guppy was presented to Kew in 1885, and a rough 
list of them appeared in his narrative of his investigations in 
the islands. Unfortunately, however, Dr. Guppy had had no 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. V. No. XX. November, 1891.] 
