APPENDIX 577 



NOTE 53 (page 141) 

 On the Genus Erythrina 



We have in E. indica a widely distributed littoral species, ranging from 

 India through Malaya to eastern Australia, and over nearly all the groups 

 of the Pacific, reaching to Tahiti and the Marquesas, but not occurring in 

 Hawaii. It is associated in Fiji and Tonga with another shore-species, 

 E. ovalifolia, Roxb., found also in India and Malaya. I did not come on 

 the second species in Fiji, and according to Seemann it is rare. It is 

 possible that there is a genetic connection between the two ; and it is 

 noteworthy that in one case Seemann was uncertain (p. 426) whether the 

 species w^as E. ovalifolia or only a variety of E. indica. 



In different parts of their areas both these species may be found inland. 

 This no doubt is to be connected with their occasional cultivation. The 

 Polynesians who esteem E. indica for its handsome scarlet flowers and its 

 scarlet seeds often plant it near their houses ; but it is curious that if 

 we look at the pages of Seemann, Home, and one or two other botanical 

 authors who have written on the Pacific, we find no reference to its littoral 

 station, the first-named botanist merely characterising it in Fiji as occurring 

 " wild or planted." 



However, in various localities in Fiji, as on the shores of Natewa Bay in 

 Vanua Levu, Erythrina indica thrives as a characteristic beach tree. Dr. 

 Reinecke speaks of it as widely spread on the Samoan coasts ; and the 

 French botanists refer to it as a tree of the Tahitian beaches. Prof. 

 Schimper frequently mentions the two littoral species of Erythrina as 

 amongst the components of the Malayan strand-flora. Dr. Treub, when 

 he visited Krakatoa in 1886, three years after the eruption, noticed some 

 young plants of Erythrina growing on the shore ; whilst Prof. Penzig in 

 1897 found that both E. indica and E. ovalifolia had established them- 

 selves on the beach. Mr. Kurz again is quoted by Prof. Schimper (p. 170) 

 as including E. indica amongst the " beach-jungle " of Pegu. 



There is abundant evidence in support of the dispersal of the genus by 

 currents. I have observed the seeds of Erythrina indica on the beaches of 

 Keeling Atoll. Schimper noted Erythrina seeds amongst the stranded 

 drift of the Java Sea. Treub remarked young plants of the genus growing 

 on the shore of Krakatoa three years after the great eruption, and Penzig 

 places Erythrina indica and E. ovalifolia amongst the beach-plants brought 

 to Krakatoa through the agency of the currents. The seeds of E. indica 

 not infrequently came under my observation stranded on the Fijian 

 beaches and floating in the Rewa estuary ; and in an experiment made in 

 Fiji they still floated after five months in sea-water. Mr. Hemsley years 

 ago formed the opinion, from the drift collections at Kew, that the genus 

 was dispersed by the currents. I may here add in further illustration of 

 this point that Erythrina seeds were found by me in South America 



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