to the new ones ; but there is great reafon to fuppofe that, including;
both the idles o f New-Zeeland, a Flora o f no left than 400 or 500
fpecies, on a careful ferutiny, might be collefted. together ;. efpe-
cially i f the. botanift fhould come at. a more advanced ftafon than
the beginning o f fpring, or not fo late as the beginning, o f winter
at which times we had the only opportunities o f vifiting this,
country.
In the tropical, ifles, the proportion o f new and known fpecies
is very different. A ll our acquifitions o f new ones From them
amount to about 2 zo Fpecies.; and. the colleftion o f the known, or
Linnsan, to n o , which gives the whole number. 3 30; and thews*
that one third were well known before. Cultivation contrir.
butes not a little, towards this,, becaufe.it probably contains fuch
plants, as the firfl fettlers o f theft ifles brought with them from
their original Eafl-Indian feats, which o f co.urle are mofl hkely to
be known-; and, with theft cultivated ones,, it is to be. fuppofed
there might come the feeds o f many wild ones, alfo of Eafl-Indian
growth, and confequently known to the botanifts. T h e new
plants, therefore, can only be thofe which originally grew, peculiar
to theft countries, and fuch as. have efeaped the vigilance o f the
Europeans in India,
T h e number o f individual fpecies (330) which we found in the
tropical ifles, (old and new) is by no means to be. confidered as a
m
perfeft Flora, for which purpofe, our opportunities of botanizing v e g e -
were greatly -infufficient. On thecontrarv, lam rather inclined to k in g d om
Blink, that our number might almofl be doubled on a more accurate
fearch, which muft be the work o f years, not. of a few days,
as Was the cafe with us. Th e greatefl expe&ations are from the
New-Hebrides, as they are large, uncultivated, but very fertile
iflands-, T h e jealous difpofition of their natives would not permit
us to make many difcoveries .there; yet, from -the out-fkirts of the
country, we might form a judgment o f the interior parts. As an
inftance, that we often have had indications o f new plants, though
we could never meet with the plants themfelves, I fhall only mention
the wild nutmeg of the ifle of Tanna, o f which we obtained
feveral fruits, without ever being able to find the tree. Th e firfl
we met with was in .the craw o f a pigeon,, which we had fhot, (of
that fort, which, according to Rumphius, diffeminates the true -
nutmegs in the Eafl-India iflands): it was- flill furrounded by a
membrane of bright red, which was its mace; its color was the
feme as that of the true nutmeg, but its .fhape more oblong; its
tafle was flrongly aromatic and pungent, but it had no fmell. The
natives afterwards brought us fome o f the'm. Quiros mufl have
meant this wild nut, when he enumerates nutmegs among the products
of his Tierra del Efpiritu Santo. This circumflance gives a
ftrong proof .(with many more of another nature) o f the veracity .of
Z 2 this