xvi LITTORAL AND INLAND PLANTS' RELATIONSHIP 169 



by the currents, that have since disappeared, a view supported 

 by the fact that Leguminosae are wanting in oceanic islands where 

 there is no littoral flora. The second is the " Fijian difficulty " 

 which is best represented by Pandanus. From our inability to 

 regard the inland species as derivatives of the coast species, or to 

 supply them with a means of dispersal, we are compelled to regard 

 them either as having been a part of the original continental flora 

 of Fiji or as owing their existence there to the agency of extinct 

 birds having the habits of the Nicobar pigeon and of the extinct 

 Columbae of the Mascarene Islands. Since the Mascarene Islands 

 are noted not only for their extinct Columbae but also for their 

 number of peculiar species of Pandanus, the implication seems 

 to lie against the continental view. The subject, however, awaits 

 further investigation. In the Western Pacific the possible agency 

 of the parent forms of the existing species of Megapodidae is 

 worthy of attention. Like the Columbae and Pandanus in the 

 Mascarene Islands, the Megapodes and Pandanus have " differenti- 

 ated " together in the Western Pacific. 



(9) The general view of the independent origin of the beach 

 and inland floras of the Pacific islands is supported by the large 

 number of genera in the strand flora that only possess littoral 

 species. 



(10) Such shore species, together with other strand plants, 

 sometimes extend into the interior of an island, but only as a rule 

 where the requisite conditions for a plant of xerophilous habit 

 exist. 



(n) Shore plants, it is pointed out, are xerophytes first and 

 halophytes afterwards ; and under certain conditions the purely 

 xerophilous inclination prevails and the plants travel far inland. 



