CHAPTER XVI 



THE RELATION BETWEEN LITTORAL AND INLAND PLANTS 



{continued) 



The Fijian difficulty. — Inland species of a genus possessing fruits not known to 

 have any means of dispersal through agencies now at work in the Pacific. — 

 Pandanus. — Its remarkable distribution in oceanic groups. — To be 

 attributed perhaps to extinct Columbae or extinct Struthious birds. — 

 Barringtonia. — Guettarda. — Eugenia. — Drymispermum. — Acacia laurifolia. 

 — Conclusions to be drawn from the discussion. — Summary of chapters 

 XIV, XV, XVI. 



Section IV 



Here we deal with two genera, Pandanus and Barringtonia, 

 where inland endemic species occur in the same group with the 

 wide-ranging coast species, but possess fruits concerning which it 

 is either difficult or almost impossible to suggest a mode of dispersal 

 by existing agencies. This section is especially concerned with 

 Fiji, and represents the peculiar " Fijian difficulty " that is illustrated 

 by other genera as — for instance, the Coniferous genus Dammara — 

 which are not in any sense littoral. Further investigation is, 

 however, requisite in the case of Barringtonia, and to a less degree 

 with Pandanus ; and I can only here point to the general indica- 

 tions of the data at my disposal. We have in these genera to 

 assume either that the inland species are derived from the coast 

 species, or that the seeds were brought by one of the extinct 

 birds of the Western Pacific, by a megapode or by one of the 

 Columbae, or by some Struthious bird like the moa or the 

 cassowary, or, if these two assumptions fail, that there has been a 

 continental connection through the islands to the westward with 

 the mainland beyond. 



Pandanus. 



I take this genus first because the recent monograph on the 

 Pandanaceas by Dr. Warburg (Engler's Das PflanzenrcicJi, 1900) 



