2S8 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



to that genus ; but subsequently Dr Beccari sent further specimens, collected by D'Albertis 

 on the Fly River, together with fruits believed to belong to the same species. And fruits 

 exactly like those collected by D'Albertis were found by Moseley in the drift off the mouth 

 of the great Ambernoh River, and on the sea-beach of the Arrou Islands ; hence it would 

 appear to be a common tree in the region. Whether it grows in the Arrou Islands or the 

 fruits were washed ashore is uncertain. The genus Vateria is spread over the Western 

 Peninsula of India and the Malayan Archipelago ; and the present species is remarkable 

 for its much-thickened recurved sepals. 



MALVACEAE. 



There are perfectly sound-looking seeds of a species of Hibiscus from the New Guinea 

 drift ; they will float now, but with their body almost wholly immersed. 



STERCULIACE^E. 

 Heritiera littoralis, Dryander. 



New Guinea drift. 



The large crustaceous indehiscent one-seeded carpels of this tree seem to be quite 

 impervious to water, and from their lightness would doubtless float for a long time. The 

 seed is destitute of albumen, but the enormously thick cotyledons fully compensate in the 

 process of nutrition for its absence. Like many other common littoral trees, this flourishes 

 equally well at a distance from the sea. 



GUTTIFER.E. 



Calophyllum inophyllum, Linn. 



Calophyllum inophyllum, Linn. ; Wight, Ic. PI. Ind. Or., t. 77. 

 New Guinea drift. 



There is a number of the one-seeded, globular fruits of this common littoral tree of the 

 region. They vary in size from three quarters of an inch to one inch and a half in diameter, 

 and in their present condition float with about half of their bulk out of water. The seeds 

 are very oily, the oil being stored in the thick fleshy cotyledons, which fill up the whole 

 cavity of the seed. Seemann (Fl. Vit., p. 12) says that this tree is one of the most 

 common littoral plants in the Fiji group ; its round fruits, mixed with the square ones of 

 Barringtonia spcciosa, the pine-cone like ones of the sago-palm, Sagus vitiensis, Wendl., 

 and the flat seeds of Entada scandens, Bentli., densely cover the sandy beaches. Moselev 

 (Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger, p. 387) mentions this as one of the earliest 

 inhabitants of newly raised coral islands. " As soon as ever a few littoral trees, such as 



