8 FLORA OF THE NICOBAR ISLANDS. 
was still, towards the end of the dry season, very moist, and so un- 
resisting that you everywhere sank down. There was none of the 
lower vegetation here, but so much the greater abundance of Pandanus 
and Areca; especially the former, which, although growing frequently 
and luxuriantly everywhere, and constituting one of the most striking 
features of the Nicobar Flora, seems at this place to attain its greatest 
development, both as to numbers and dimensions. It was from 
thirty to forty feet high, and more, dividing four to six times into 
branches, and bearing fruits of eighteen to twenty inches in length. 
On another island, Trice, there was a somewhat similar pool of fresh 
water, differing in this, that it had no vent towards the sea-side, 
so that it must be like a small lake during the rainy season. In 
February it was almost dry ; the soil contained much less humus, and 
supported a low vegetation (Helminthostachys dulcis) with few Pandant 
only, while there was a surrounding high, open forest of various species 
of Ficus, and of Barringtonia racemosa, with an underwood of ..Feronia 
elephantum and an Ardisia. I know of no other pools on the 
islands, like the above; but on the Galathea river, on the river which 
falls into the bay of Pulo Milu, and probably often on the large 
islands, extensive breaks in the coral-land are caused by the so-called 
Mangrove swamps. The inner part of the bay just mentioned, where 
the river empties itself, is covered with slime, on which, during the 
ebb-tide, there are only a few feet of water, and where a stray little 
Mangrove is only rarely observable ; but where the sea recedes 
entirely during its ebb, the Mangrove thicket commences, covering 
perhaps the outer two-thirds of the valley through which the river 
flows. This whole extent is covered with brackish water during the 
flood-tide ; and during the ebb the mud contains rich quantities of 
- crustacea and mollusca. With exception of the Mangrove (Bruguiera 
gymnorrhiza) and a less frequent acanthaceous plant (Dilivaria) there 
is no other vegetation. Close to the margin of the bay, the first forms 
a very dense shrubbery, not unlike an Alder coppice; but it soon 
becomes a high and open forest, made difficult of access by the deep 
mud, and the knee-formed roots projecting above it. Where the in- 
fluence of the tides ceases, the Mangrove disappears with it ; and so far 
as the river inundation extends during the rains a varied vegetation 
flourishes, consisting of Ficus, Pandanus, Flagellaria, Calamus, Inga, 
Cordyline, the wild Plantain, arborescent Ferns, Convolvulacez, and 
