66 TROPIC DAYS 



then endeavour to comprehend the botany of one small 

 island of the tropical coast ! 



To obtain demonstration of the vitalising and nourish- 

 ing principles in maritime sands under the effects of 

 heat, light, and moisture, it is necessary to retrace our 

 steps and walk round the sandspit to the transfigured 

 and degenerate mouth of that once mangrove-creek 

 known to the blacks by a name signifying that a boy 

 once tethered in it a sucking fish (Remora). Obstructed 

 by a bank, the creek is dead and dry save when the 

 floods of the wet season co-operate with high tides and 

 effect a breach, to be repaired on the cessation of the 

 rains. No more than four years have passed since the 

 formation of the bank began. It is now a shrubbery 

 made by the incessant and tireless sea from materials 

 hostile, insipid, and loose sand, shells, and coral debris, 

 with pumice from some far-away volcano. On this 

 newly made, restricted strip one may peep and botanise 

 without restraint, discovering that though it does not 

 offer conditions at all favourable to the retention of 

 moisture, plants of varied character crowd each other 

 for space and flourish as if drawing nutriment from rich 

 loam. 



Several botanical Families are represented, the genera 

 and species being : 



Casuarina equisetifolia (she-oak). 



Avicennia officinalis (white mangrove). 



Clerodendron inerme. 



Premna obtusifolia. 



Vitex trifolia. 



Vitex trifolia, var. obovata. 



Carapa moluccensis (cannon-ball-tree). 



Erythrina indica (coral- tree). 



Sophora tomentosa (sea-coast laburnum). 



Pongamia glabra (poonga oil-tree). 



