3 88 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC CHAP. 



say that the agency of the currents is quite insufficient to explain 

 the distribution of Ficus. When in Fiji I experimented on three or 

 four different species of Ficus belonging to the sections of the genus 

 there represented. The fruits may float at first, but within a week 

 or ten days they break down, and the seeds escape and sink. 

 Beneath a tree of F. scabra growing on the banks of the Wai 

 Tonga in Viti Levu, I noticed a number of its fruits floating in a 

 sodden condition among the reeds at the river-side. 



It is with the banyans that the dispersal of the seeds by 

 frugivorous birds becomes most evident. This is at once indicated 

 by the frequent occurrence of these trees in the interior of coral 

 islets in the Western Pacific, as in Fiji and in the Solomon Islands. 

 Fruit-pigeons roost in their branches, and birds shot on these islets 

 often contain the fruits in their crops (Bot. ChalL Exped., iv, 310). 

 The process may also be seen in operation in Krakatoa. Professor 

 Penzig found in 1897 that three species of Ficus had established 

 themselves there since the eruption of 1883 through the agency of 

 frugivorous birds. Besides pigeons, we find that parrots, hornbills, 

 honey-eaters, &c., feed on these fruits, and I possess a large number 

 of references to this subject. The Messrs. Layard in New Caledonia, 

 Dr. Meyer in Celebes, Mr. Everett in Borneo, Dr. Forbes in 

 Sumatra, and several other contributors to Ibis might be here 

 mentioned. Dr. Beccari, in his Wanderings in the Great Forests of 

 Borneo, speaks of " the facile dissemination of the various species of 

 Ficus through the agency of birds," and he arrives at certain 

 important conclusions which are discussed in Chapter XXXIII. 



I have before alluded to the absence of Ficus from Hawaii. 

 This group possesses the Honey-Eaters (Meliphagidae), birds well 

 suited for dispersing species of Ficus over Polynesia ; but this 

 family of birds is only represented by peculiar genera in Hawaii, 

 and therein lies the explanation. At the time when the Honey- 

 Eaters roamed over Polynesia, the genus Ficus had not arrived 

 from Malaya. The connection between the bird and the plant is 

 well shown on Fernando Noronha, which possesses a peculiar 

 species of Ficus and a peculiar species of dove, the only fruit-eating 

 bird in the island (Ridley). 



THE ABSENTEES FROM TAHITI 



Generally speaking, all the " difficult " genera which puzzle the 

 student of plant-dispersal in Fiji and Hawaii are absent from the 

 Tahitian region. Those with stone-fruits and with large seeds. 



