288 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



'* where the cocoauut forms the chief article of food this matters 

 "little,^' 



'^In my ramble over the island I found the Plantain, Orange, 

 " Papaw and Lime-trees, Betel-nut^ and two species of Cottou-tree^ 

 " besides a fine stately -looking tree^ with dark green foliage, not 

 "unlike the broad-leafed Elm; this tree yields fruit, but as it was 

 "not then in season I know not its nature. The Cocoanut, Plantain 

 " and Papaw are the only cultivated fruits ; the others are growing in 

 "a wild state, and the Betel-nut excepted, occupy but little a.tten- 

 " tion. Although you meet with nothing amongst the trees which 

 "^ you can term brushwood, there are plenty of creepers and coarse 

 " grass." 



Dr. Alcock, who has likewise visited Anderut says, ''there is no 

 '* true jungle, the island being covered with cocoanut palms, with 

 '' a few curiously excavated areas under tillage (ragi, sweet-potato 

 "and a species of arrow-i'oot) , and wild plants were therefore 

 "scarce."* 



It is somewhat remarkable that Lieut. Wood does not mention 

 the existence in 1834 of the excavated areas, the hat, indicated by 

 Dr. Alcock; perhaps they have been formed since the time of Lieut. 

 Wood's visit. The '' rhubarb-looking plant " of Lieut. Wood's 

 account is the Polynesian Taro, Tacca pinnatiflda. 



Dr. Alcock's collection includes 16 weeds, and escapes from 

 cultivation, two of these {Beiitella repens and Herpestis Monnieria) , 

 being weeds of wet places not recorded from any of the other 

 islands. His 'wild' species that are not weeds include (^Zon'osa 

 superha, not reported from any other island ; perhaps, however, like 

 8tacliytarj)lieta indica, which he also reports and which also seems 

 confined to Anderut, the Gloriosa may be here only an escape. It is, 

 however, a common littoral species elsewhere, so it may quite well 

 have been introduced by the sea. Tkeftpesia populnea he notes as here 

 planted only ; he notes the Bread-fruit, not recorded by Lieut. Wood^ 

 and the American Aloe, apparently quite a recent introduction into 

 the Archipelago ; this is present now in Kiltan, however, as well as in 



* Alcockjm Hoskyn, "Administration Eepoit of the Marine Survey of India," year 

 1889-90, p. 13. 



