276 JOURNAL, BuMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



The most interesting species on the island is Pisonia alba, here 

 clearly sea-introduced^ which has not been reported from any other 

 member of the group, and has never indeed been found growing 

 undoubtedly wild either in India or in Ceylon. 



To the south and a little west of Bitrapar, in Lon. 72° E. and Lat. 

 11° 10' N.j is situated the third open reef of Pirmalpar which has 

 been visited by Mr. Hume, who describes it * as a huge triangular 

 atoll with only one small bank, at the north-east corner, about 200 

 yards long and 50 yards across, uncovered at high water but with 

 the greater portion of the reef visible at low tide. The islet — which 

 derives its name of Pirmalla from a tradition of the people that their 

 ancestors, the original settlers in the archipelago, formed part of an 

 expedition which set out from Malayala (the Malabar coast) for 

 Mecca in search of their apostate King Barman Pirmal, but was 

 wrecked in these islands! — is not composed, like those on the Cher- 

 baniani reef, of accumulations of coral debris, but is a bare, smooth, 

 wind-swept sand-bank absolutely devoid of any vegetation. J It is 

 therefore clear that, whether the Tatacum of Lieut. Wood's list 

 refers to this reef or to Oherbaniani, the islanders misinformed him 

 when they assured him that it produced coco-nuts. Perhaps, how- 

 ever, the people of Anderut, who probably do not themselves visit 

 this reef, seeing this is a British and not a Cannanore possession, 

 only knew that the island was visited periodically, without being 

 aware whether the visits were paid in order to obtain coco-nuts or 

 merely for fishing and egg-collecting. 



■ South-east of Pirmalpar between Lon. 72° 10' and 72° 20' E. and 

 between Lat. 10° 50' and 10° 57' N. lies the large atoll of Akati, the 

 most westerly of the inhabited islands and the only inhabited island 

 of the western chain of peaks. This atoll, which encloses a large 

 lagoon inside which vessels of some size find an anchorage, was 

 visited in 1875 by Mr. Hume, who describes the reef as somewhat 

 " shoulder-of -mutton " shaped, the knuckle to the south-west with 

 Akati itself in the middle of the knuckle, and with two small un- 

 inhabited islands, Bangaro and Tangaro, towards the edge of the 



* " Stray Feathers," vol. iv., p. 450. 



t Robinson, " Madr. Journ.," vol. xiv., p. 8. 



X Hume, " Stray Feathers," vol. iv., p. 451. 



