Island, is distant about six hundred miles from New Zealand. Sunday Island rises to a height of 1,720 ft., and is the only one of the group which is forest-covered. The plant-covering of this island has been described by two New Zealand botanists, Cheeseman (9) and Oliver (28). The last named, who spent a year on the island, describes the climate as mild and equable, with many rainy days, considerable precipitation evenly distributed over the year, much wind in the winter months, and a constantly humid atmosphere. For the nine months February to October, 1908, the total rainfall was 67.5 in., on 176 days; and the mean humidity was 91. The more elevated parts of the island are frequently enveloped in mist, and the plant-covering here is designated by Oliver “wet forest.” There are, however, no permanent streams. Four species of Hymenophyllaceae occur in the wet forests, and the following description of them is taken from Oliver's paper (p. 142): H. demissum is abundant everywhere in wet forest, on branches of trees, tree-fern stems, and on the ground. H. flabellatum is found in one place only, on the highest summit, the matted roots and close fronds covering the underside of a leaning trunk of Metrosideros villosa. T. humile is extremely rare, being found only on wet banks and fallen trunks of tree-ferns in deep shady ravines. T. venosum is an epiphyte of the wet forest found on the underside of leaning trunks of Cyathea kermadecensis. The high humidity of this upper forest is shown by the luxuriant epiphytic vegetation there to be found on leaning trunks and horizontal branches and on the treefern stems. The Kermadec Islands as they now exist are of volcanic origin, and the consensus of opinion seems to be that they are oceanic—at any rate, in a biological sense. The flora is closely allied to that of New Zealand, but there is also a considerable number of subtropical species. The four species of Hymenophyllaceae are all abundant in the North Island of New Zealand. The scanty distribution of this family in the Kermadecs is the more remarkable when the favourable nature of the forest is considered. From a study of the flora generally, Cheeseman concludes (9, p. 163) that the islands have been stocked with their plants by chance migrations across the ocean. The Chatham Islands lie about five hundred miles due east from New Zealand, in the latitude of Banks Peninsula. The largest of these is about thirty miles in length, its surface consisting, on the whole, of low elevations, relieved here and there by hills, of which those in the south attain a height of 600–940 ft. Forest covers a certain portion of the main island, both in the lowland and on the higher elevations, that of the latter being especially humid, with a close undergrowth of tree-ferns in many places and with an abundance of epiphytic ferns. Two papers dealing with the plant-covering have been published in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, the first by Buchanan (6), who gave merely a list of plants collected from the main island, and the second by L. Cockayne (11), who dealt with the subject from an ecological point of view. The latter gives figures showing that at the eastern coast-line the average annual rainfall is 30.4 in., but that it is distributed over 186.6 days in the year, and adds that the rainfall is certainly heavier on the higher southern portion of the island. After going into the subject of the climate in detail he concludes that it must be reckoned exceedingly mild and equable, but that the winds are very frequent. Buchanan's list of Hymenophyllaceae occurring on the main island is as follows: H. bivalve, H. demissum, H. dilatatum, H. australe, H. flabellatum, T. reniforme, and T. venosum; to which Cockayne