BOTANY OF THE LACOADIVES. 2Y1 



Lat. 11° N. conveniently separates the Archipelago into two groups; 

 the northern, containing the inhabited islands of Chitlac, Kiltan, 

 Kadamum, and Ameni with the uninhabited island of Bitra and the 

 open reefs of Pirmalpar, Cheriapani and Cherbaniani, which are 

 attached to the administrative district of South Kanara, and thus 

 owe direct allegiance to British India ; and the southern, contain- 

 ing the inhabited islands of Minikoi, Kalpeni, Anderut, Korati and 

 Akati, with the three uninhabited islands of Suheli (on the Suhelipar 

 reef), and Bangaro and Tangaro (on the reef on which Akati is 

 situated), which belong to the Bibi of Cannanore, and thus only 

 indirectly acknowledge British suzerainty.* It will be observed 

 that only one of the atolls of the western chain — that on which 

 Akati stands — has an inhabited island, whereas of the other two the 

 only one without an inhabited island is the Piti sandbank, which, 

 however, is of a somewhat diflferent nature from the other atolls men- 

 tioned, being in reality a sunken bank of the same type as Koradivh 

 and Elikaip^ni. 



The earliest topographical account of any of the islands is a 

 description of the Cannanore island of Anderutf by Lieut. Wood, 

 who visited it in December, 1834, and who, from enquiries 

 made in this one, drew up a table in which the names of all the 

 islands, with their condition as to population and vegetation, are 

 shown. A chart of the group had, however, already been prepared 

 from a survey by Lieut. Moresby in 1828.+ The group was more 

 fully described by Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Robinson, of the 

 Madras Civil Service, who in 1844 and 1845 visited the inhabited 

 islands directly under British rule, and made enquiries of the people 

 of x\meni, Kadamum, Kiltan, and Chitlac regarding the condition of 

 Bitrapar and of the inhabited islands belonging to the Cannanore 



* Since, however, the people of Minikoi do thus acknowledge themselves Indian 

 subjects, and since, except for the accident of population, the island has no greater 

 claim to be considered a member of the Maldive than of the Laccadive group, it is 

 better to deal with Minikoi along with the Laccadives, which are patently Indian 

 islands, than along with the Maldives, which acknowledge the suzerainty of 

 Ceylon. 



t Extract from Lieut. Wood's private Journal regarding the Lakeradeevh Archi- 

 pelago; " Journ. of the Roy. Geogr. Soc," vol. vi., p. 29-33 (1836). 



:J: A reduced reproduction of this chart is given in " Madr. Journ. of Lit. and Sc," 

 vol. xiv., plate 16 (1847). 



36 



