(Lucett, 1851). According to Maude (ca. 1938). palms were 

 also periodically planted — and destroyed — "by whalers and 

 other chance visitors to the island." 



Until Arundel's arrival in 1885, Cocos was basically 

 confined to this single grove in the northwest sector of South 

 Island (Maude, ca. 1942a). In 1885, land clearing began, and 

 from then till 1929, nearly 38,000 palms were planted, 29,480 

 between 1916 and 1920 and another 7.000 young trees after 

 1927 to replace thousands that had perished (Young, ca. 1922). 

 Arundel's initial license gave him the exclusive rights to 

 occupy Caroline and Flint, planting coconuts and other trees 

 for 2 1 years, in return for an annual rental of 50 pounds ( Maude, 

 ca. 1942a). In 1929. 13,215 trees remained, after which no one 

 has counted them. Our field work and scrutiny of aerial 

 photographs indicate that far fewer exist today. 



Caroline's plantations produced copra periodically from 

 1 873 to 1934, but never profitably. They suffered greatly from 

 the atoll's abandonment from 1901-1916. Dying and poorly 

 planted palms presented continual setbacks ( Young, ca. 1 922), 

 and in 1878 a hurricane wrought great destruction (N.I.D., 

 1943). In addition, plantation managers lamented their poor 

 productivity due to choking "by undergrowth and Pohue Vine 

 [said to be Tuumfetta (- Triumfetta) procumbens, most likely 

 a misidentification of lpomoea mac rant ha], destruction of 

 inflorescences by great numbers of seabirds which roosted in 

 the tops and broke off the flowers as they appeared," disease, 

 and ruination of nuts by Polynesian rats and coconut crabs. As 

 a result of this, the resident laborers slaughtered many crabs, 

 and "greatly reduced the numbers of sea birds, who migrated to 

 unoccupied islets." The rat problem was never resolved and 

 appears to be the major reason for repeated failure of the 

 plantations on both Caroline and Flint. Their enormous numbers 

 and voracious eating habits greatly reduced both the crops of 

 potentially healthy nuts as well as the volume of dried copra. In 

 1920, 4,600 were trapped on South Island, and hundreds more 

 were killed by small terriers introduced specifically to control 

 them (Young, ca. 1922). Maude (personal communication) 

 recalls that one terrier still survived in the 1940's. Rats still 

 abound, especially within coconut groves and Pisonia forests. 

 Another serious problem was due to coconut crabs digging up 

 recently planted nuts and also their habit of pinching off young 

 developing shoots. Evidently after the palms had attained one 

 year's growth this was no longer a problem (Young, ca. 1922). 



Before abandonment (1902 to 1916, and after 1934), 

 Caroline's plantations were owned by several companies whose 

 average annual copra output was approximately 14 tons. From 

 1934 to the 1970's, copra was harvested sporadically by small 

 parties from Tahiti (Garnett. 1983). but within the last 2 

 decades it stopped altogether. 



Despite the relatively fertile soils of South Island, the 

 problems in the plantations hampered the establishment of 

 permanent settlements on Caroline. In the 1930's, Maude 

 estimated that the atoll could support 400 Gilbertese. increasing 

 to over 1 .000 "when the island has been fully planted" ( Maude, 

 ca. 1938). However, colonists were never established, leaving 

 Caroline "one of the least spoiled islands in the Pacific" 



(Stoddart, 1976). As Young's (ca. 1922) unpublished 

 "Memoranda" indicate, Caroline is not as pristine as it appears; 

 however, the rapid comeback of many of its natural forests on 

 the windward side is remarkable (see discussion under Pisonia 

 Forests, this section). 



Distribution and Abundance : We recognize four 

 subdivisions of the coconut woodlands: Cocos Plantations, 

 Dying Cocos-lpomoea Plantation, Scattered Groves on Small 

 Motus, and Mixed Forest with Cocos. 



1. Cocos Plantations (34.07 ha) 



Palm forests now dominate South Island and southwestern 

 Nake. Although the planting of Cocos on South altered most 

 of its original habitats, Nake escaped with less damage: whereas 

 Cocos covers 77% of the area on South, it takes up only 6% of 

 Nake (11% including mixed forests). The 60 to 100-year-old 

 trees form tall, closed canopy woodlands (PI. 24) 21-25 m 

 high, the customary maximum height recorded for old 

 plantations (Fosberg, 1953). Figure 51 shows the distribution 

 and abundance of plant species along a transect running centrally 

 through the island, while Fig. 36 depicts a schematic profile of 

 the same swath. 



Pure coconut plantations (like all habitats on Caroline) 

 harbor relatively few species: up to 7 trees, zero to 2 shrubs, and 

 5-11 herbs. The ground vegetation and shrub layers are 

 composed almost exclusively of indigenous species, an unusual 

 feature. However, skirting the edge of South Island's lagoon, 

 tall palms overhang the water and crowd out native plants; 

 there were considerably fewer Suriana and Tournefortia in 

 1988 (PI. 29) than in 1965 (PL 40). 



2. Dving Cocos-lpomoea Plantation (53.92 ha) 



Mature plantations characteristically become overgrown 

 with shrubs and vines (Fosberg, 1953. 1956). lpomoea 

 macrantha. the sole vine on Caroline, forms tangled, 

 impenetrable thickets. Indigenous, nonparasitic, and widely 

 dispersed by ocean currents, it occurs naturally in small numbers 

 in natural habitats on Caroline, but grows rampantly in disturbed 

 areas. These vine-covered coconut woodlands cover two- 

 thirds of South Island's interior (Fig. 50). The Dying Cocos- 

 lpomoea forest is moribund. It is bordered by a belt of living 

 palms, which in turn are sheltered by a narrow rim of indigenous 

 vegetation (Figs. 36.51). 



While surveying the South Island transects, the authors 

 stomped over intertwining thickets up to 3 m high (PI. 7) and 

 crawled through tightly-knit masses of vines descending from 

 the crowns of old palms, Pisonia, and Morinda bushes, until 

 this too, proved impenetrable. In sunny clearings dotted with 

 dead or dying palms, lpomoea, Boerhavia, and Phymatosorus 

 proliferated luxuriantly, lpomoea, one of the prime reasons for 

 the double abandonment of copra production, will continue to 

 destroy the coconuts, encouraging natural ecological succession 

 to begin anew. 



3. Scattered Groves on Small Motus (0.82 ha) 

 Drift-derived palms were observed as long ago as 1834 



(Bennett, 1840). In 1916, when planting operations were 

 commenced after a break of 14 years, about 40 trees grew 

 beyond the plantations (Maude, ca. 1942a). Today, small 



33 



