xxvii COUTHOVIA 



401 



interior of the coral islets with trees of the genus, and the ground 

 below the trees is often strewn with the disgorged stones (Bot. 

 Chall. Exped., iv, 310 ; Guppy's Solomon Islands, p. 85). 



Although the difficulty concerned with the transport of the 

 seeds across a broad tract of ocean seems very great, it is quite 

 possible that further investigation will enable us to overcome this 

 objection, just as we have done in Chapter XXVI when explaining 

 how the genus Elasocarpus may have reached Hawaii. It is, indeed, 

 not unlikely that, as with Elaeocarpus, the stones of the drupes 

 may in some species be much smaller and far more fitted for being 

 carried in a bird's body over several hundred miles of ocean. 



Couthovia (Loganiaceae) 



Reference is here made to this genus because its mode of 

 dispersal is known, and because I was familiar with it in Fiji. 

 Seemann gives two species for Fiji, C. corynocarpa and C. seemanni, 

 and the few other species known seem to be confined to the 

 Western Pacific. Solereder gives a third species, C. densiflora, for 

 Kaiser-Wilhelmsland in New Guinea (Engler's Pflanz. Fam. teil 4, 

 abth. 2) ; and a Solomon Island species, nearly allied to, if not 

 a variety of, the Fijian species, C. seemanni, is referred to in 

 the list of plants from that group given in my book on those 

 islands. I found C. corynocarpa not infrequently growing on the 

 banks of small rivers in the heart of Vanua Levu. Its drupes, 

 which float for a few days in sea-water, are, according to Seemann, 

 eaten by fruit-pigeons. The " stone " varies from 2 to 4 centi- 

 metres (f — \\ inch) in length ; and from the standpoint of dispersal 

 the genus ranks with Canarium and Dracontomelon. Seemann 

 describes and figures this species, which was constituted by Gray, 

 in his Flora Vitiensis ; but, apparently through an error, it is in 

 the Index Kewensis accredited to Hawaii. Hillebrand makes no 

 reference to the genus in his book on the Hawaiian flora. 



t> v 



Veitchia (Palmaceae) 



This genus of palms is closely allied to Ptychosperma, a Malayan 

 genus also represented in Fiji. The Index Kewensis names four 

 species, one New Hebridean, and three Fijian. The fruits of two 

 of the last-named species tested by me had no floating power. The 

 seed is about an inch long, and the genus would be likely to 

 be spread by fruit-pigeons. From the standpoint of dispersal the 

 genus would be placed with Canarium and Couthovia; but possibly 

 VOL. II JD D 



