Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/101

 NEW PLiBLICATIONS. 87

eighty remain, forming pnrt of the "Atlantic element" of Dr. Hooker;* about thirty-six only, however, are common to the Azores and the Madeira and Canaries groups, and from this short list probably a quarter must be subtracted for various reasons; yet Madeira is but five hundred miles distant. The relationship with America is singularly slight, four species only of those which are neither European nor Madeiran being common to that continent and the Azores. The widely spread African shrub Myrsiue ofrlcana alone (of the same list) represents the flora of the much nearer continent of Africa, which is only what might be expected when we remember bow small an African element is found, even in the Canarian flora.

The remai'kable fact remains, that forty species (one-twelfth of the whole flora) are peculiar to the islands. A list of tiiese will be of value to our readers: — Cardamiue Caldeiranum, Nasturtium Jlexnosum, Cerustinm azo- riciim, Hypericum follosum, Vicia Dennesiana, Rubiis Hochstettorum, Sa- nicula azorica, Animi Hnittii, PetroseUnum trifuliatani, P. Seitbertiunnm, Solidago azorica, Senbertia azorica, Senecio rnalcafulius, Tulpis nobilis, 3H.croderis rirjens, M. Jilii, Campanula Fidalll, Vacciniam cylliidraceum., Erica azorica, Erythrcea Massoui, Veronica Dabneyl, Euphrasia gratidi- jiora, Myosotls azorica, M. inarltlma, LysimacJiia azorica. Euphorbia azorica, Habenaria mlcrantha, II. lonytbracteata, Luzula purpureo-splen- dens, Cai-ex azorica, C. IcEvicaulls, C. rujidlfulia, C Hochsletttrluna, C. jioreslana, C. Vulcani,? Deyeuxia ceespitosa,? D. azorica, Holcus rlyidus, Festuca petrcea, Isoetes azorica. It will be observed that, with the excep- tion of Seubertla and Microderis, all the genera are European. As above hinted, this list is likely to be somewhat reduced by a more systematic ex- amination of the plants of Portugal. As, however, Mr. Watson, who has had many of these specially Azorean plants under cultivation, finds them to recjuire a damp, equable climate, such as is found in their native islands, and to be quite unfitted to endure a Continental one, we can only expect the more robust species as the Carlces and grasses to be found in Europe. A useful table is added to the catalogue, showing the distribu- tion (approximately) of the Azorean plants through Europe, Madeira, Canaries, Africa, and less completely America. It would have been in- teresting to have traced, as far as is possible, each species through the nine ishmds composing the Azorean group.

Mr. ^Yatson has defined elsewhere some half-dozen of the novelties of the ishmds, and in the volume before us he fully describes Flcla Dtai- neslaita, found by Mr. Hunt, in St. Michael's, a remarkable plant, with large flowers, which change colour during their expansion. The Spergularla of the Isles, which the autlior is niucli inclined to describe as a new species, has been already distinguished by Kindberg in his 'Monograph of, the genus Lepujanuvi' (p. 30 and f. 15) as Z. uzorlcum.

In the list of Muscl and Ihpatlcae, Mr. Mitten has not confined himself to the Azores, but included the other Atlantic isles, Madeira and the Canaries. His catalogue of Mosses amounts to 151, only forty-seven of which have been met with in the Azores; Bartramla azorica seems to be the oidy species peculiar to these islands. Of Ihpatlcce, sixty-eight species are known to occur in the Atlantic islands; of these nineteen are enumerated as Azorean, and two Gymnomil rlum erythrorhlzum and liha- cotheca azorica, are supposed to be peculiar to that flora. Mr. Milieu lias
 * ' Lecture ou Insular I'lorasi,' lb6G.

�� �