262 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC CHAP. 



contemporaneous with, the other as of later origin than, the genera 

 of these two orders. To the first belong the shrubby, highly dif- 

 ferentiated genera of the Caryophyllaceae, Schiedea and Alsiniden- 

 dron, and the Labiate genera, similarly differentiated, of Phyl- 

 lostegia and Stenogyne. To the second belong the Rubiaceous 

 genera Kadua, Gouldia, Bobea, and Straussia, the Araliads 

 Cheirodendron, Pterotropia, and Triplasandra, and the Loga- 

 niaceous Labordea. 



In the earlier group the fruits are dry in half the genera, and 

 in such cases granivorous birds probably were usually the trans- 

 porting agents. Only in one case (Nothocestrum) is the fruit a 

 berry, and in the other cases we have fruits like the fleshy nucules 

 of Phyllostegia and Stenogyne which would probably attract birds. 

 In the later group two- thirds or three-fourths of the genera have 

 moist fruits such as would be eaten by frugivorous birds. Of 

 these most are drupes, possessing not a single stone, but two or 

 more pyrenes. This is the first appearance of the drupe in the 

 plant-history of the archipelago. The Rubiaceous type of drupe 

 inclosing two or more pyrenes plays a very conspicuous part in the 

 distribution of plants over the Pacific in the succeeding eras. 



I would here lay stress on an important characteristic of all the 

 fruits of the endemic genera of the Hawaiian Islands. There are 

 no " impossible " fruits of this era in Hawaii, such as we occasion- 

 ally find in the succeeding eras. I mean by this term, fruits that 

 defy the efforts of the student of distribution to explain their 

 transport in their present condition. The discovery of a new 

 inland genus possessing dry indehiscent fruits three or four inches 

 long, or even of a single species of the coniferous Dammara, would 

 play havoc with all our views respecting the stocking of these 

 islands with their plants. The finding here of a large marsupial 

 would scarcely produce more astonishment. The fruits indeed of 

 this early era are very modest in their size, the dry indehiscent 

 fruits and the stone-fruits rarely exceeding half an inch (12 mm.) 

 in size. 



There is another interesting point which is connected with the 

 deterioration of some of the fruits in their capacity for dispersal. 

 Some of the species of Phyllostegia, and a few also of the Araliads, 

 as well as those of Nototrichium, are ill fitted for dispersal by 

 birds now, the coverings of the seeds being not sufficiently hard to 

 protect them from injury in a bird's stomach. At the same time 

 there are in some cases other species of the same genera that are 

 better suited for this mode of transport. The effect of dispersal 



