ON THE DISPERSAL OF PLANTS. 289 
and alg on Krakatoa; and this brings me to refer to the 
remarkable absence of ferns in the Keeling Islands, or rather 
to the fact that they have never been recorded from there. 
Its erytogams were represented at the time of Darwin’s 
visit by a moss and a fungus; but no species of fern is shown 
in his list. This is a singular circumstance when we re- 
member what a conspicuous part ferns take in such isolated 
islands as Juan Fernandez, Tristan d’Acunha, the Kermadecs, 
&c. Even the remote coral-group of the Paumotus in the 
central Pacific contained Asplenium nidus and a Polypodium. 
(Gray’s Botany of the Paumotus.) 
In the next place I will refer to the drift fruits and seeds 
that are continually being stranded on the weather or 
southern and eastern beaches of the Keeling Islands, and 
which the navigator can observe for himself on the ocean’s 
surface during the voyage to and from this atoll. In August 
and September, 1888, I collected between 50 and 60 different 
kinds, of which, as previously observed, one-third were beans, 
including those of the large seeds of Hntada scandens, which 
are cast up in numbers. Probably later in the year, as I was 
informed by the residents, | would have made a yet larger 
collection. Many of these drift fruits and seeds are incrusted 
with serpule, polyzoa, and cirripedes. Amongst the most 
numerous are those of Barringtonia speciosa, Terminalia Catappa, 
Ochrosia parviflora, Cerbera odollam, Nipa fruticans, and the 
large triangular seeds of Carapa moluccensis, which last are 
often occupied by the Teredo and other boring molluscs, 
though a goodly proportion are not thus attacked. Amongst 
other seeds and fruits also commonly found are those of a 
species of Pandanus, and the germinated seed of the man- 
grove,* with those of Calophyllum inophyllum, Hernandia 
peltata, Guettarda speciosa, Cordia subcordata, Heritiera littoralis, 
Aleurites moluccana, Cycas circinalis, Ipomea pes capre, and 
I. grandiflora ; and amongst the leguminous plants, those of 
Cesalphinia Bonducella, Mucuna macrocarpa, Lrythrina indica, 
and more than one species of Hntada. Of these stranded 
seeds and seed vessels, not more than a dozen or thirteen have 
ever succeeded in finding a home on this group of islands. 
I now append the list of stranded seeds and fruits, as deter- 
mined at Kew :— 
* The seeds of the Pandanus and Mangrove were not included in my 
collections. They are thrown up in numbers later in the year. 
