INSULAR FLORAS. 289 



probably a quarter of that number. The presence of so 

 large a population must have had some modifying influence 

 on the vegetation ; yet not to the extent that might have 

 been expected, because there is little cultivation, the natives 

 living largely on fish, with which the waters swarm. Mr. 

 Woodford says : " The islands are clothed from end to end 

 with a dense growth of cocoanut palms and other vegeta- 

 tion, and present a beautiful appearance when approaching 

 from the sea. The reefs and lagoons teem with fish, thus 

 enabling the islands to support a population which for 

 their land area was at one time equalled in no part ot the 

 world." 



Mr. Woodford gives a list of the plants compiled from 

 observations on the islands he visited, which he believes is 

 nearly complete. As I am able to supplement it by a few 

 additional species in the Kew Herbarium, chiefly collected 

 by the Rev. Mr. Whitmee, and also to supply specific names 

 in some cases where he gives only the generic, I will give a 

 list of all the vascular plants known to inhabit the group, as 

 a sample of the typical coral island flora. Calopkyllum 

 Inophyllum (Guttiferae), Sidafallax (Malvaceae), Triiunfetta 

 procumbens (Tiliaceae), Tribulus cistoides (Zygophyllacese), 

 Pemphis acidula (Lytheraceae), Rhizophora mubronata 

 (Rhizophoraceae), Guettarda speciosa and Morinda citrifolia 

 (Rubiaceae), Sccevola Kcenigii (Goodeniaceae), Tournefortia 

 argentea (Boraginaceae), Pisonia biennis and Boerhaavia 

 ^fksYZ (Nyctaginaceae), Euphorbia Atoto? (Euphorbiaceae), 

 Ficus tinctoria (Moraceae), Crinum pedunculatum ? (Am- 

 aryllidaceae), Cocos nucifera (Palmaceae), Pandanus odora- 

 tissimus (Pandanaceae), Fimbristylis glomerata (Cyperaceae), 

 Lepturus repens (Gramineae), and Polypodium Phymatodes 

 (Filices) — just a score of species, it will be seen, belonging 

 to as many different genera, and to eighteen different natural 

 'orders of the most diverse habit and structure. They 

 are almost without exception plants of general distribution 

 in tropical oceanic islands and on the sea-shores of the 

 continents. The majority of them indeed inhabit the 

 smaller remote islands of the tropical parts of the Indian 

 Ocean. I will only add here that their seeds are such as 



