OF THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO 269 
rents of the North Pacific Ocean will graphically show that the 
Hawaiian Archipelago is practically outside the zone of influence 
of the great currents that would naturally bring the seeds of 
tropical plants to her shores. Guppy’s statements (’06, pp. 75, 64) 
are pertinent in this connection: 
The currents of the Pacific have failed to establish the numerous beach-trees 
(possessing buoyant fruits) of the Pacific Islands, not only in the Hawaiian group, 
but also on the coast of America; and it is therefore argued that we should expect the 
Hawaiian group to have received through the currents its shore-plants with buoyant 
seeds or fruits Beal the tropical west coasts of America. 
In support of this contention it is pointed out that most of the Hawaiian strand- 
plants that are dispersed by the currents are found in America, and some indeed in 
America to the exclusion of the Old World. 
The arrangement of the currents in the North Pacific also favours the view that 
the Hawaiian Islands are more likely to receive plants by the agency of the currents 
from America than from the Asiatic side of the Pacific. 
ee 
Speaking generally of the extension eastward of the Indo-Malayan strand-plants 
over the Pacific, Professor Schimper (['91] page 195) remarks that they become fewer 
and fewer in ie eons need -ghueig: from their original home, their number 
shrinking toa f the Marquesas and the Hawaiian 
Islands. The canes eo introduced through the currents into Hawaiiin 
all likelihood, therefore, d 
IMPORTANCE OF DRIFT MATERIAL 
Drift material is much more abundant along the Hawaiian 
windward shores than on the leeward shores. Nowhere does it 
attain the proportions that characterize many other regions else- 
where on the globe. Certain districts, for example, the south- 
east coast of Hawaii, between Honuapo and Kalae, particularly 
the Kamilo beach near Kaluwalu, seem to be much more favor- 
ably situated for the reception and accumulation of drift than do 
others. 
Tansley and Fritsch ('05) describe the abundant drift on 
portions of the Ceylon littoral, and note the great variety of plant 
fragments, fruits, and seeds: 
The thickest masses of drift were very moist and quite warm to the hand, and 
intervals ost striking sight. Of these the most conspicuous were Cerbera 
odollam, Saaiilins inophyllum, Bruguiera gymnorhiza, Crinum asiaticum, and 
Colocasia antiquorum (from bits of old rhizome). 
Moseley (’79, p. 367) reports from the Moluccas living epiphytic 
