280 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



" nut, the trees being planted down to the water^s edge on every side; 

 "\he substratum of coral-rock is nowhere broken up for grain culti- 

 " vation, which therefore hardly exists on the island. The population 

 " being too limited to consume the coco-nut leaves, the ground in 

 " some parts is covered with decaying vegetable matter, most bene- 

 "ficial to the trees. In other islands it is necessary to rear plants for 

 " one year with care and then transplant them ; in this, a nut buried 

 "with a knife will grow, requires no attention, and comes into bearing 

 ^^ early .^^* Mr. Robinson mentions the Bread-fruit, Areca-nut, and 

 Lime as trees that are planted by the islanders, but says that they do 

 not thrive; in addition to these Mr. Hume mentions the Papaya, the 

 Horse-radish tree, the Plantain and the Castor-oil plant; beside 

 these, Mr. Fleming also enumerates the Agati {Seshania grandifiora) 

 which is grown as a support for the Pepper- vine, a plant on which the 

 people bestow much attention; the Melon too is reported by Mr. 

 Fleming as ' only cultivated,^ as perhaps is the Cucumber, of which 

 Mr. Fleming has communicated one specimen, found growing 'wild.' 

 He also found a hummock of Khus-khus grskS,s{Andropogon muricatus), 

 no doubt planted, growing near the mosque, and noted the 

 American Aloe, introduced from the mainland, and growing well. 



The indigenous vegetation belongs almost entirely to the class 

 of ' littoral ' species, of which Mr. Hume^s, Dr. Alcock's and 

 Mr. Fleming's collections contain ten; the only noticeable points 

 concerning this group are that the whole lagoon-face of the island 

 is described by Hume as lined with a hedge of Scaevola Koem'gii, 

 and that Thespesia populnea is reported by Fleming as here only an 

 indigenous, never a planted tree. 



There is, says Dr. Alcock, no true jungle in the interior,! and the 

 only species that cannot be classed either as ' weeds,' or as ' littoral 

 species' are Vitis caniosa (probably bird-introduced), and Tylophora 

 asthmatica shndLeptadenia reticulata (probably both wind-introduced). 



As in the case of Akati, the majority of the species present are 

 either weeds or escapes, plants unintentionally introduced by man ; 

 of these, the three collections together contain thirty-one species. 



* Robinson, " Madras Journal," vol. xiv., p. 24. 



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

 1889-90, p. 13. 



