J y6 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



coast seeds is on the average but slightly less than that of sea- 

 water ; and it is to this fine adjustment, always liable to be 

 disturbed by variations in the environment, that the irregularities 

 in the distribution of the species are to be attributed. 



Entada scandens (Benth.). 



The story of Entada scandens, a plant familiar to many of my 

 readers under the name of the Queensland Bean, is a story of three 

 continents, Africa, Asia, and America. From the point of view of 

 its dispersal two features at once attract attention in the case 

 of this giant-climber ; in the first place its wide distribution over the 

 tropics of the Old and New Worlds, and in the second place the 

 great capacity of its large seeds, often two inches across, for dis- 

 persal by the currents. But before discussing these matters it will 

 be necessary to glance at the distribution of the genus, since much 

 light will thereby be thrown on some of the numerous difficult 

 points affecting this extremely interesting tropical plant. Of the 

 thirteen species enumerated in the Index Kewensis, seven are 

 African, three are American, one is Burmese, one hails from 

 Madagascar, and, lastly, there is the world-ranging Entada scandens, 

 concerning whose home botanists are not agreed. Most of the 

 species would seem to be inland plants, whilst Entada scandens 

 thrives both inland and at the coast. Africa would thus appear to 

 be, as with Afzelia, the principal home of the genus, but with 

 America as a subsidiary centre. 



In many points Entada scandens presents a parallel to Caesal- 

 pinia bonducella, another Leguminous tropical plant which occurs 

 also at the coast and inland. But since they both owe their wide 

 distribution to their littoral station, it will be as coast plants that 

 they will be most properly considered in this and the following 

 chapter. Yet if the student were to regard the distribution of 

 these two plants in a continental region as in India, where they 

 extend inland to the Himalayas, he might fail to discern their true 

 station. To accurately gauge the matter of their station, it is 

 necessary for him to look at the plants as they occur in the islands 

 of the Pacific. There he will first see the stranding of the seeds on 

 a shore by the currents, then their germination and their develop- 

 ment into giant-climbers over the littoral trees or into straggling 

 bushes on the beach ; and afterwards he will observe the plants of 

 both species extending inland, and in these three stages he will 



