276 H. B. GUPPY, M.B., 
of this is seen in the unusually luxuriant growth of the 
vegetation that clothes its surface. 
Covering the flats on the shores of the lagoon, where they 
are overflown at high tide, we find Seswvium Portulacastrum. 
Immediately bordering these flats are the bushes or low trees 
of Pemphis acidula; and directly behind them rise the arched 
trunks of the Keeling Ironwood (Cordia subcordata), which 
sometimes also borders the water and extends as well into 
the interior, where most of the larger trees have been burnt 
or cut down. Within the island, in the localities where the 
original vegetation has been best preserved, as in the 
northern part, grow the tall cabbage-tree (Pisonia (inermis ?)), 
Ochrosia parviflora, Hernandia peltata, Terminalia Catappa, 
Premna obtusifolia, and Guettarda speciosa. In other parts of 
the island, however, the trees are often barely in sufficient 
numbers to attest their presence. Formerly, they alone 
occupied the interior, where the cocoa-nut plantations now 
thrive. Amongst the trees originally found in the island, 
as I have previously remarked, was Morinda citrifolia. Of 
late years it has been spread so rapidly by fowls as to 
become a nuisance. The Papaw tree, introduced by the 
proprietor many years since, is now being distributed all 
over the interior by the same agency .... In the last 
place I should refer to the vegetation of the weather coasts 
where Journefortia argentea and Scevola Kenigii line the beach, 
Spreading over the foliage of the trees near the sea we 
observe the climbing leguminous plant Canavalia obtusifolia. 
I come now to refer to the fact that several familiar littoral 
trees have not succeeded in establishing themselves in the 
Cocos or Keeling Islands. We notice their drifted seeds 
germinating on the beaches, but we do not find their names 
amongst the flora. It is a remarkable circumstance that, 
although the low, muddy, lagoon-shores of all these islands 
are very well suited for the mangrove, the nipa, and Lumnitzera 
coccinea, the place of these widely spread trees is here taken 
by rows of bushes of Pemphis acidula and by the over-arching 
trunks of Cordia subcordata. The fruits of the nipa, the ger- 
minated seeds of the mangrove, and the seeds of Lwmnitzera 
coccinea, are thrown in numbers on the beaches, where some 
sprout and beginto take root; but they have never yet obtained 
a footing by natural means, and never would except through 
man’s intervention. Of the host of other fruits and seeds 
that are brought by the waves and currents to these islands, 
many make similar ineffectual efforts to establish themselves. 
Amongst the stranded fruits that have failed in their attempts, 
