64 
Flora of Nai’CO:idam and Barrea Island. 
as extending to, but not beyond, Barren Island. To Blanford is due tbe 
merit of having upset the fanciful hypothesis of the further extension 
of the line across the Arracan Yomah, and of having suggested its pro¬ 
bably ti-ue northern continuation. More recently it has been proposed"^ 
by Berghaus and others to sub-divide the extended Sunda line of Blan¬ 
ford into a Sunda Range proper, ending at the northern limit of Sumatra, 
and a Pegu Range, containing Barren Island, Rarcondam, Popah and 
Han-shuen-shan. But it is obvious that if any sub-division be necessary, 
the one proposed by Berghaus is erroneous. A sudden deep gap in the 
line, with the further character of activity to the south of it, and non¬ 
activity to the north, is a much more natural cleavage than merely a 
number of miles of intervening sea, the nature of whose bottom is un¬ 
known or has been misunderstood. If therefore Berghaus be justified 
in differentiating a Pegu Range, it is clear that Barren Island must be 
excluded from it, and that we must return to Von Buch’s view, that 
Barren Island is the most northerly member of the Sunda Range. The 
Pegu Range of very old and long extinct volcanoes begins then at 
Narcondam, and extends at least as far as south-western Yunnan. 
The biological interest of these islands is not so great as the phy- 
siographical, because, whether the ridge here postulated exists or not, 
there is little doubt that these sub-aerial portions never have been con¬ 
nected with any of the adjacent lands. If Plat Rock has ever been sub¬ 
aerial, and in a fit condition to shelter air-breathing creatures and 
support vegetation, it is so no longer; how great soever may be the 
antiquity of the outer cone of Barren Island, it is probable from its con¬ 
figuration, that at one time it has been the scene of a catastrophe like 
that which in 1883 devastated Krakatau and totally destroyed its 
animal and vegetable life. The only one that, from its topography, has 
evidently remained for many ages in its present condition is Narcondam. 
Already the writer has laid before this society some notes on the Fauna 
of the islands f ; R remains now to be seen whether the biological facts 
indicated by their Flora are in agreement with the deductions that 
should follow from their physiographical configuration. 
All the plants found in the two islands are enumerated in the list 
that follows ; running numbers are added to the locality so as to show 
at a glance how many species occur in each. In the discussion that 
succeeds the list the peculiarities of each island are dealt with before 
their common characteristics are considered. 
* Stieler : Hand Atlas, sheet 8. 
t Prain ; Proceedings Asiat. Soc., Bengal, 1892, p. 109. 
278 
