A Monograph oj Marcus Island. 123 



height. Their feathery plumes, lifted high above all else, gave a 

 pleasant variety to what would otherwise have been a monotonous 

 forest and sky line. The colony unfortunately are working a seri- 

 ous damage to the grove by the methods they have adopted to 

 secure the nuts. With a large knife they hack great notches into 

 the trees in such a way as to form a ladder of the trunk, a pracftice 

 which will surely result in the death of the palms. Some effort has 

 been made by them to extend the cultivation of the palm by trans- 

 planting young trees into open spaces. All plants thus reset 

 seemed to be doing well. It was the opinion of Mr. Sedgwick and 

 myself that the entire island could with little difficulty be planted 

 to this palm. 



A large boraginaceous tree, Toiirnefortia servicea, was by far 

 the most abundant species on the island, growing and thriving 

 everywhere it made in manj' places an almost impenetrable jungle. 

 The larger trees attained a height of more than thirty-five feet, 

 with trunks often two feet in diameter. The wood was of little 

 servide, being very brittle and decaying rapidly. 



Next in importance was a splendid tree of the order Riibiacecs^ 

 producing a one-celled seed. It was impossible, however, to pro- 

 cure sufficient material for a satisfadlory determination of the 

 species. I brought living plants with me to Honolulu which are 

 now growing in Kapiolani Park. The tree, while thriving over 

 the greater part of the island, found its most congenial habitat in 

 and about the dr}- lagoon where trees thirty or more feet in height 

 with wide-spreading branches covered with large thrifty green 

 leaves made a pleasant shade. The seeds have a peculiar property 

 of excreting a sticky fluid from the pores on the angles. This 

 substance coming in contact with the feathers of the birds frequent- 

 ing the shade adheres to them firml}-. Without doubt this species 

 is carried from island to island by birds in this way. 



The common Portulaca lutea Sol. was well established, grow- 

 ing in bunches here and there all over the island, though it was 

 more abundant on the seaward slopes. 



A species of Enxolus was sparingly distributed over a limited 

 area a short distance back of the camp. It showed the effecfls pro- 

 duced by some biting insect. 



Of the grasses but two species were found. Paniciivi prurieiis 

 Trin. had gained a footing and was growing luxuriantly on the 



