BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 09 
Minikoi ; Fleming ! 
A weed of waste places, cosmopolitian in the tropics. 
var. porphyristachya Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., iv, 730. Achyranthes 
porphyristachya, Wall., Cat. 6925. 
Bitrapar; Hume! Bangéro; Hume! Kalpéni; Alcock! Kiltan ; Fleming ! 
Kadamum ; Fleming ! Akati ; Mleming ! Minikoi; Fleming ! 
A weedy climber common in the littoral zone of the Indian and Malayan 
coasts ; also in the moist valleys of Sikkim, Chittagong, etc. 
The common weed is only reported from Minikoi, from which island also 
(and from most of the others) comes the usual littoral condition which in habit 
simulates A. bidentata, Bl., but which has the fimbriate staminodes of A. aspera. 
While A. aspera is undoubtedly a plant introduced unintentionally by man, 
there is no doubt that here, as often elsewhere, A. porphyristachya is a sea- 
introduced plant. 
POLYGONACEZ, 
128. Polygonum barbatum Linn., Sp. Pl., 362; Hook. f., Flor. 
Brit. Ind., v., 37. P. rivulare Koenig in Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 290. 
Kalpéni ; Alcock ! 
In wet places throughout tropical Asia and Africa. 
PIPERACEZ:, 
129, Presr Bertie Linn., Sp. Pl. 28; Roxb., Flor. Ind.,i, 158; Hook, 
f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 85. 
Akati ; Kilétn ; Kadamum ; Minikoi ; in all the islands cultivated and, as 
is the custom generally in Southern India, trained round the trunks and over 
the branches of the Agati (Sersbania grandiflora). ‘‘ This plant is an object of 
great care” (Mleming). ) 
Native of Malaya, where, and in the hotter parts of India and Ceylon, it is 
cultivated. 
LAURINE, 
130. Cassytha filiformis Linn., Sp. Pl. 35; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 
314; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 188. 
Kiltan ; on Wedelia scandens in the coast zone, Alcock! Kadamum ; on 
Pleurostylia Wightit, Fleming ! 
A leafless parasite, common on sea-shores, cosmopolitan in the tropics. 
131, Hfernandia peltata Meissn. in DC., Prodr., xv., pt. i, 263 ; 
Hook.f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 188. Hernandia ovigera Gaertn., Fruct., 1., 193, 
t. 40, f. 8; Roxb., Mor. Ind., iii, 577, nec Linn. 
Korat Hume! Minikoi ; Fleming ! - 
