12 Expedition of 1906 



On the north coast trees and shrubs extend to the water's edge or 

 even into the water. We found in Edam a mangrove belt poor in 

 species, an association not often met with on small coral islands. It 

 consists chiefly of species of Rhizophoraceae, Rhkophora coujugata, 

 Brugiera gymnorhiza, Brugiera caryophylloides, with two members 

 of the Lythraceae, Souneratia alba and Pemphis acidula. 



A considerable area of the interior, formerly under cultivation, is 

 now covered with grasses, especially with Imperata artmdinaeea, 

 which exceeds the height of a man. By the sides of the paths we 

 found several specimens of the common blue-flowered Javan verben- 

 aceous species Stachytarplicta bidica and Lantana Camara, the 

 inflorescences of which glow with different shades of yellow and red ; 

 also numerous Compositae which, like Bideus pilosus, Vemonia 

 cinerea, and Wedelia glabrata, occur in all the warmer regions of the 

 world, or, like Tridax proeumbens and particularly SynedreUa nodi- 

 flora, have spread from the New World over the tropics of the Old. 

 The amount of material collected during our excursion, which lasted 

 barely two hours, was remarkable. It consisted of 7o phanerogams 

 and 2 vascular cryptogams. On the coral reef I was able to collect 

 12 different green algae, the commonest being species of Caulerpa, 

 Udotea, and Halimeda ; also some red and brown sea-weeds. 



As the composition of the flora on the neighbouring islands is 

 probably similar to that of Edam and as our collection is of interest 

 from the point of view of comparison with the floras of other coral 

 islands such as Schimper 1 and Guppy 2 have described, the list of the 

 species obtained on Edam is appended : 



Angiospermae : 



Fam. Compositae: Bidens pilosus L. 



fEclipta alba Hassk. 

 Synedrella nodiflora Gaertn. 

 Tridax proeumbens L. 

 Vernonia cinerea (L.) Less. 

 * Wedelia glabrata B. et H. 

 Fam. Goodeniaceae : fScaevola Koenigii Vahl. 

 Fam. Rubiaceae: fGuettarda speciosa L. 



fMorinda citrifolia L. 

 *01denlandia umbellata L. 



1 Schimper, A. F. W. Die indomalayische Strandfl&ra. Jena, 1891, pp. 185 



188. 



2 Guppy, H. B. The dispersal of Plants, as illustrated by the flora of the 

 Keeling or Cocos Islands. [See also Guppy, Obser cations of a Naturalist in the 

 Pacific between 1896 and 1899. Vol. IL, Plant Dispersal. London, 190b.] 



