BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 285 



" fine ;" * the Bread-fruit trees, which are nuinerous in Ameni, 

 grow most luxuriantly here, while considerable numbers of 

 Betel-nut trees occupy the same situation. The cultivated plants 

 enumerated by Mr. Robinson include, besides the coco-nut, betel- 

 nut and bread-fruit, the ragi [Eleusine Goracana) ^ jowari [Sorghum 

 vulgare), hadag [Setaria verticillata) t Sweet-Potato, Yam, Plantain, 

 Castor-oilplant (cultivated for its oil) andAnatto (grown for its dye. 

 Several hundredweights of fruit of Bixa Orellana being annually 

 exported to Malabar) ; the Lime is also mentioned by him as being of 

 excellent quality and the trees as numerous. In addition to these 

 Mr. Hume mentions the Pomegranate, Papaya, and Horse-radish 

 tree as common ; he observed also some Banyans, some Tamarind 

 trees, some Amla [Emhlica officinalis) ^ and a number of Poou-'trees 

 [Calophyllum inophyllum), Tplsbuted. He further enumerates among 

 cultivated vegetables Golocasia antiquorum, which in all the other 

 islands appears to be in a 'wild' condition. He notes having 

 observed all the sea-shore species obtained in Bitrapar except a 

 sedge (Cyperus pachyrhizus) ^ and his specimens include Euphorbia 

 Atoto which has not been found on the coasts of any of the other 

 islands, 



Mr. Hume's is the only collection made in Ameni ; it includes 

 eleven species that may be classed as weeds as well as the following 

 species that should probably be considered as 'escapes from culti- 

 vation' : — Datura fastuosa, Physalis peruviana, Mucuna capitata, 

 Clitoria ternatea,a,ia.d Barleria Prionitis; all these are garden or hedge 

 plants well known in India, here they all appear to be growing in a 

 * wild ' state. 



The Piti sand-bank, situated in Lon. 72°35'E. andLat. 10° 45' N., 

 is on the extreme southern edge of a large sunken bank twenty 

 miles long, that extends to this point from the vicinity of Ameni. t 

 The rest of the bank carries from six to twenty fathoms of water, the 

 subaerial patch is about 300 yards long and 200 yards across, 

 standing about 6 or 7 feet above high-water mark, and is quite 

 devoid of vegetation. It evidently occupies the south-eastern 

 coi'ner of a sunken atoll, for, whereas on all other sides bottom is 



* Robinson, " Madr. Journ.," vol.. xiv., p. 18. 

 t Hume, " Stray Feathers," vol. vi., p. 453. 



