34° A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



well dried by keeping, found that they floated for from ten to sixty 

 days. This limited capacity for flotation might possibly allow the 

 species toreachTahiti by easystages from Fiji ; but it is not sufficient 

 to explain its occurrence in the more isolated Hawaiian Group. The 

 fruits and seeds of this plant never, however, came under my notice 

 in the floating or stranded seed-drift of Fiji ; and I am not inclined, 

 for this and the reasons above mentioned, to consider that the cur- 

 rents have been very effective agents in dispersing this plant over 

 the Pacific islands. 



Hillebrand endeavoured to account for the wide distribution ot 

 Dodonaea viscosa by " the glutinous capsules which would easily 

 adhere to the plumage of birds." It may be here remarked that in 

 the dried state specimens of the plant have a varnished appearance 

 as respecting the leaves, branchlets, and capsules. In the living 

 condition this is represented by a glutinous or viscid condition of 

 the surface of these portions of the plant, rendering them adhesive 

 to the touch. I found, however, that only the immature capsules 

 are markedly " sticky," and that in any case the adhesive power 

 was quite insufficient to allow of adherence for any length of time 

 of fruits of this size to a bird's feathers. Mr. Ridley, who allows 

 much latitude to birds in matters of dispersal, remarks that the 

 stickiness only appears when the specimen is dry {Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. Bot., 1888-94, p. 289). It is, nevertheless, likely that the crus- 

 taceous seeds, which do not exceed i of an inch (5 mm.) in size, 

 when swallowed by a bird granivorous in its diet, might be voided 

 unharmed, and the dispersal of the species assured. It is in this 

 fashion, I imagine, that the plant reached distant groups like Tahiti 

 and Hawaii. 



There is, of course, the possibility that man has in past times 

 aided in the distribution of Dodonaea viscosa over the warmer 

 regions of the globe. But such an agency seems largely discounted 

 in the case of an isolated archipelago like Hawaii by the occurrence 

 of endemic species. Nor does the usual station in the Pacific 

 islands support the view that it was introduced by the aborigines. 

 According to Hillebrand, it possesses a variety (var. spathulata) in 

 Hawaii which seems also to occur in Tahiti and New Zealand. 

 Nadeaud observes that in Tahiti it grows as a bush on dry crests, 

 and as a small tree, ten feet in height, in the mountains. 



Nor do the aboriginal names of Dodonaea viscosa point in the 

 direction of man's agency. It possesses a different name in every 

 group, and is evidently not a plant with which the ancestors of the 

 Polynesians were familiar in the home of the race. Thus it is 



