OCEAN-BORNE FRUITS 417 



example of ocean carriage, the coconut, has been shown 

 recently by O. F. Cook (1902, 19 12) to be quite unfitted 

 for this mode of transport. The buoyant fibrous mesocarp 

 and thin cutinised exocarp, which look so well suited to 

 keep the fruit afloat, are really related to germination in 

 arid conditions. The coconut is often cast up in the drift 

 on tropical shores, but the coconut trees seen by Ernst on 

 Krakatau, which had evidently sprung from sea-borne 

 fruits, are perhaps the only authentic instance of the tree 

 establishing itself. It is originally an inland plant which 

 owes its wide distribution along the tropical seaboard solely 

 to the fact that it is a valuable cultivated plant carried every- 

 where by the native races of the Pacific. A number of 

 fruits which certainly owe their dispersal to ocean currents 

 possess light flotation tissues, e.g. Barringtonia speciosa, 

 but many others have no features which are not seen in 

 the fruits of many inland plants. 



2 E 



