observed by M. Desfontaines in Barbary, there are only
about three hundred, or scarcely one fifth part of the whole
number, which are not known in Europe.*
The Canary islands, according to M. de Humboldt, contain
plants found in Portugal, in Spain, in the Azores, and on the
north-west coast of Africa. According to De Candolle, of
five hundred and thirty-three vascular plants found in the Canaries,
two hundred and twenty^three have been discovered
in Africa.*}* A great number n f species, and even entire
nera, are peculiar to Teneriffe, to Porto Santo, and to Madeira.
Mr. R. Brown inferred, from the botanical specimens c o llected
by Professor Smith in St. Jago* that the flora; of, the
Cape de Yerd islands is intermediate-between the vegetation
o f the adjoining African continent and the Canary isles.J
But the principal insular region of our globe'is the great
Southern Gcean, including the Indian seas, and the most remote
spaces of the Pacific. Much information has been collected
on the botany of this region by the two Forsters, more
lately by Mr. R. Brown, by Labillardfere, Chamisso, and
other scientific men who accompanied the French and Russian
expeditions, and lastly by M.- Lesson.' This writer?appropriates
the term Polynesia to the groupes of islands and archipelagos
of the Indian seas, including the Sunda, Molucca*
and Philippine islands, with New Guinea of whieh he considers
the chains of Louisiade* the New Hebrides* and
New Zealand to be continuations, and he comprises undec the
name of Oceania, the more remote groupes of the Pacifist
The former, which consist according to M. Lesson of primitive,
or as he terms them primordial formations, are regarded
by him as the terminal points, and the debris of the great
Austral Asiatic continent, which-has undergone disruption in
its equatorial region : the islands of Oceania on the other
hand are of volcanic and madreporic origin, of recent
* Personal Narrative.—Translation, p; 270. voL i.
*f- Diet, des Sd. Nat. p, 406.
$ Brown’s Appendix to Capt. Tuckey’s Voyages, p. 476. — See also Extracts
from Smith’s Journal, in Tuckey’s Narrative, p. 29.
formation, posterior to>}the>era of the present surface of our
planet.*
The vegetation of Oceania is composed, according to this
excellent naturalist*,of plants exclusively Indian, or analogous
to those of .equatorial India, of the? * Sunda isles, Moluccas,
and New Guinea. Their distribution has, evidently taken
place from Polynesia eastward to;«Oceania, and towards
Easter island and the American coast. M. LeSSon observes,
that the .vegetable kingdom, so luxuriant in the isles of Polynesia,
lessens; gradually in richness as we advance towards the
east. The isle Juan Fernandez, howèvqr, has not yet been examined,
and it would (bemofeeurprising-if this ancient volcano
should be found to bear the flora of the continent which it
approaches. j|$
The Indo-Polynesian vegetation displays ’ itself ?in all its
splendour under the equinoctial line. Majestic in. .-the Sunda
isles, it spreads progressively over the numerjOus Malayan and
Tidorian possessions,<and appears in all its grandeur and luxuriance
in thé eastern Moluccas, and the land of the Papuas,
I t is: there, that numerous Palms* Cycades, and Ferns assume
the graceful and slender form of light columns: immense
forests are composed of lofty trees, , such as the gatip or in-
ocarpuscdulis, bread-fruit-trees, nutmeg-trees* and spondias :
it is in the depths of, theseiforests that we meet, with jthe
esculent plants of the Oceanian people, shrubs and legumef
of innumerable and various forms.I iMpbservwg tfie mass o f
this vegetation, we find i t -perceptibly diminishing as we approach
the straits of Torres, whieh only a few species traverse,
belonging to genera by no means extensive. Such are
the cabbage-bearing Arec, the Indian Erythrine, two wild
Nutmeg-trees, and the Flagillaria Indica. Continuing to examine
the flora of the chain reaching southward of Polynesia,
viz. New Britain and New- Ireland, we find again the same
luxuriance : the forests are still peopled with the Areca and
Sago-trees, with great Ferns, and Drymyrrhizese. Proceeding
towards higher latitudes, in the New Hebrides and
* Hist Nat. des Mammifères et des Oiseaux découverts dépuis 1788 jusqu’à nos
jours, par R. P. Lesson- Paris, 1828.