GENERAL REMARKS ON THE PHYSICAL 
16* 
Mahe (30,000 acres), Praslin (8000 acres), Silhouette (5700 acres), La 
Digue, the best cultivated and most densely populated of the group 
(2000 acres), and Curieuse (1000 acres). The length of Mahe is 17 
miles. The mountains of the interior reach a height of 3000 feet, and 
those of Silhouette a height of 2500 feet, but none of the others rise 
above 1500 feet above sea-level. The seasons are similar to those 
of Mauritius, the average highest daily temperature in the shade 
being stated to range from 80° to 87° Fahr., and the lowest from 
70° to 74°. The annual rainfall is given by Mr. Horne at 96 
inches, by far the greater part of which falls from October to 
April, during the north-west monsoon. The principal exports of the 
islands at the present time are cocoa-nut oil aud cocoa-nut fibre. In 
1862, above £10,000 worth of cocoa-nut oil was exported. Between 
1814 and 1827, cotton was cultivated to a large extent, and for its 
sake many of the aboriginal forests were destroyed, but since the 
abolition of slavery in the British possessions, America has gradually 
occupied the European markets, and its cultivation in the Seychelles 
has dwindled away. The larger islands rise steeply from the sea, and 
are often bordered by precipices of several hundred feet in height. 
In Praslin and Silhouette the soil is very poor. In Mahe it is rich in the 
ravines and forests, but has been much washed away since the principal 
woods were cut down, and at the present time large trees are only to be 
found in the more inaccessible parts of the mountains. The entire 
vegetation is of a distinctively tropical character, the few temperate 
types that reach Mauritius being here entirely absent. The number 
of wild flowering plants and ferns with which we are now acquainted 
in the group is 338. Of these, six genera are endemic : Medusagyne , 
Deckenia , Nephrosperma , Rosclieria , Verschajfeltia , Lodoicea , and 
Stevensonia ; all but the first-named of which are Palms. The total 
number of endemic species is 60, of which 14 are Bubiacese, 8 Vascular 
Cryptogams, and 3 Paudani. Most of the 54 species which do not 
belong to the monotypic endemic genera just named, are members of 
large widely-spread genera. Before the botany of the group was worked 
out, it was expected, from the isolated position of the islands, their 
granitic soil, and peculiar palms, that their flora would be much richer 
in individuality of character than has proved to be the case. Besides 
the 60 endemic species, between 20 and 30 are characteristically 
Mascarene types, and the remaining 250 mostly plants of wide 
dispersion. 
