NATURAL HISTORY 483 



The next morning after anchoring I went on shore on 

 Direction Island. The strip of dry land is only a few hundred 

 yards in width ; on the lagoon side there is a white calcareous 

 beach, the radiation from which under this sultry climate was 

 very oppressive ; and on the outer coast a solid broad flat of 

 coral -rock served to break the violence of the open sea. 

 Excepting near the lagoon, where there is some sand, the 

 land is entirely composed of rounded fragments of coral. In 

 such a loose, dry, stony soil, the climate of the intertropical 

 regions alone could produce a vigorous vegetation. On some 

 of the smaller islets nothing could be more elegant than the 

 manner in which the young and full-grown cocoa-nut trees, 

 without destroying each other's symmetry, were mingled into 

 one wood. A beach of glittering white sand formed a border 

 to these fairy spots. 



I will now give a sketch of the natural history of these 

 islands, which, from its very paucity, possesses a peculiar 

 interest. The cocoa-nut tree, at the first glance, seems to 

 compose the whole wood ; there are, however, five or six other 

 trees. One of these grows to a very large size, but, from the 

 extreme softness of its wood, is useless ; another sort affords 

 excellent timber for ship-building. Besides the trees, the 

 number of plants is exceedingly limited, and consists of 

 insignificant weeds. In my collection, which includes, I 

 believe, nearly the perfect Flora, there are twenty species, 

 without reckoning a moss, lichen, and fungus. To this number 

 two trees must be added ; one of which was not in flower, 

 and the other I only heard of. The latter is a solitary tree 

 of its kind, and grows near the beach, where, without doubt, 

 the one seed was thrown up by the waves. A Guilandina also 

 grows on only one of the islets. I do not include in the above 

 list the sugar-cane, banana, some other vegetables, fruit-tr,ees, and 

 imported grasses. As the islands consist entirely of coral, and at 

 one time must have existed as mere water-washed reefs, all their 

 terrestrial productions must have been transported here by the 

 waves of the sea. In accordance with this, the Florula has quite 

 the character of a refuge for the destitute : Professor Henslow 

 informs me that of the twenty species nineteen belong to different 

 genera, and these again to no less than sixteen families ! ^ 

 ^ These plants are described in the Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. i. 1838, p. 337. 



