BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 279 



soil so poor that the growth of coco-nut tree is slow and their 

 outturn poor. '' Low mounds of sand occupy a great part of the 

 " centre and best protected parts of the island on which nothing 

 " grows, except scanty crops of a plant called Teerny, on the roots of 

 " which a small ball about the size of a pea grows ; after the plant 

 " has withered^ these are gathered from among the loose sand and 

 "used by the islanders. Dry cultivation on this island is very in- 

 " significant."* The Teerny is obviously Tacca pinnatifida^ which 

 we know from Lieut, Wood to be cultivated in Anderut, and from 

 specimens in the Investigator collections to be grown in Akati and 

 in Minikoi. The tubers, however, are apparently unusually small in 

 Ohitlac, for the specimens of those grown in Akati and Minikoi sent 

 to Calcutta are as large as plums. Still even these latter compare 

 very unfavourably with the tubers of Tacca as it occurs wild on the 

 shores of the Andaman Sea ; there they are usually larger than a 

 man's fist, and are often as large as the human head. 



South-east of Chitlac, in Lon. 73° B. and Lat. 11°28' N., lies 

 Kiltan, the smallest inhabited island of the group. It has been 

 visited and described by Mr. Robinson, f by Mr. Hume,{ who also 

 has published a map of the island, and by Dr. Alcock.§ Both 

 Mr. Hume and Dr. Alcock have made collections, and a third col- 

 lection has been obtained by Dr. Alcock and Mr. Fleming during 

 the second Investigator visit in 189L The atoll of Kiltan "is a 

 " long oval reef enclosing' the usual lagoon with one entrance at the 

 "north-west corner, surrounded by the usual shelving bank, varying 

 "from one-eighth to half a mile in breadth, beyond the edge of which 

 "the lead drops at once into very deep water, and with the whole 

 " eastern side of the reef converted into an island which is nearly two 

 " miles in length, and may average nearly a quarter' of a mile in 

 " width." II " The lagoon is large but shallow, and is nearly dry at low 

 " water. The whole island is devoted to the cultivation of the coco- 



* Robinson, " Madr. Jonrn.," vol. xiv., p. 26. 

 t Eobinson, " Madr. Journ.," vol. xiv., p. 23. 

 X Hume, "Stray Feathers," vol. iv., p. 436, with Map. 



§ Alcock, in Hoskyn, " Administration Report of Marine Survey of India," year 

 1889-90, p. 12. 



II Hume, " Stray Feathers," vol. xiv., p. 436. 

 37 



