xxv PRITCHARDIA 



329 



When we compare the variety of the names of the Pritchardia 

 fan-palms in the Pacific Islands with the prevailing uniformity of 

 the names of cultivated plants transported by the aborigines in 

 their migrations from Malaya, such as the taro, the yam, the sugar- 

 cane, the coco-nut, and the Malay-apple, we perceive that the 

 testimony of the names points to the same conclusion as the 

 botanical evidence, namely, that the ancestors of the Hawaiians 

 found these palms in the group at the time of its occupation. In 

 the South Pacific much uncertainty prevails. The ancestors of the 

 West Polynesian peoples evidently brought the word for a fan- 

 palm from their Malayan home ; but it is doubtful if they found 

 Pritchardia already established in all the islands ; and the apparent 

 home of the genus in America prevents us from attributing to a 

 palm, that is by some botanists regarded as confined to the Western 

 Pacific, a home in the neighbouring regions to the west. There is 

 thus a lack of agreement between the botanical and ethnological 

 indications as regards the original American origin of Pritchardia 

 in the South Pacific. 



There remain then the agencies of the currents and of birds. 

 A singular feature in the distribution of the Hawaiian species, 

 Pritchardia gaudichaudii, at once affords a clue as concerning the 

 dispersal in the North Pacific. Dr. Hillebrand remarks that this 

 palm covers part of Bird Island, a small volcanic rock forming an 

 outlier of the Hawaiian group about 400 miles north-east of Kauai. 

 Here the agency of birds is suggested, since it is scarcely likely, 

 though, as shown below, not impossible, that stranded fruits of the 

 palm could have established themselves in this fashion. Mr. 

 Perkins has an interesting note on the food of Ciridops anna, an 

 Hawaiian bird, now nearly extinct, that feeds principally on the 

 blossoms and unripe fruits of the Loulu palms, probably of this 

 species. The drupes when fresh have a somewhat fleshy mesocarp 

 and are about T \ of an inch (22 mm.) across, and their crustaceous 

 inner shell would undoubtedly fit the seeds for dispersal by frugiv- 

 orous birds like pigeons. The fruits of the other two Hawaiian 

 species are considerably larger, that of P. macrocarpa being, accord- 

 ing to Linden, of the size of a nut of Juglans regia, that is, about 

 ii inch or 29 mm., whilst that of P. martii, as we learn from Hille- 

 brand, is from ii- to 2 inches or 37 to 50 mm. Allowing for the 

 variation in size of the fruits within the limits of the genus, there 

 need be no more difficulty in assuming that the original species 

 had fruits that could have been brought by birds, than in holding 

 that the fruits of Elaeocarpus have been carried to Hawaii in the 



