[Note 91]. Mr. E. Kay Robinson on Aster tripolium.
NOTE 1 (page [13])
On the Number of Known Species of Fijian Flowering Plants
Rather over 600 species of flowering plants are included in Seemann’s Flora Vitiensis, excluding the weeds and the plants introduced by man. Horne’s collections would probably add another 300 species; and many more remain to be discovered.
NOTE 2 (page [13])
The Littoral Plants of Fiji
In the following table are incorporated the results of an extensive series of observations and experiments on the buoyancy of the seeds and fruits of the shore plants made by the author during his sojourn of two years in Fiji, and based not only on prolonged buoyancy-tests, but also on systematic examination of the stranded and floating seed-drift, both of sea and river. The details would occupy many chapters: and it is only possible here to give the bare results. Since Professor Schimper went over much the same ground in the Malayan region, one enjoys in many cases the great advantage of his authority; but a fair proportion of the results are new; and, besides, there are a number of plants included, the buoyancy of whose seeds or fruits has long been well established. In all cases the seed or fruit is taken as it presents itself for dispersal by the currents. Many of the plants are discussed with some detail in various parts of this book, as indicated in the reference column of the table.
Since the Gramineæ and the Cyperaceæ contain very few species suited for direct transport by the currents over wide areas of sea, this list may be regarded as containing nearly all the littoral flowering plants possessing seeds or seed-vessels with any buoyancy of importance.
Nearly all the Tahitian strictly littoral plants are represented in Fiji, and the few that have not been found there yet, such as Sesbania grandiflora, Heliotropium anomalum, &c., may exist, as in the first-named species, in the neighbouring Tongan group, and may probably even exist in Fiji. Two other Tahitian littoral plants, that are widely spread in the Pacific, namely, Suriana maritima and Sesuvium Portulacastrum, are found in Tonga, and are included in my list of Fijian shore plants, though not yet recorded from that group, where, however, they will, without a doubt, be found by some future observer.
Table showing the Buoyancy of the Seeds or Fruits of the Littoral Plants of Fiji, excluding the Grasses and, with one exception, the Sedges
The letters placed before the plant name indicate that the species is also found in Hawaii (H), in Tahiti (T), and in the Marquesas (M). The Marquesan locality is only given where the plant is not in Tahiti.
The abbreviations in the reference column are as follows: