BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 85 
extend further than Malaya. On the other hand, 2 species (Laamea pinnatifida 
and Cyperus pachyrhizus) find on the Laccadives and the adjacent Indian Coasts 
their extreme eastmost extension; the Oyperus is a plant characteristic of the 
western coasts of India and of Arabia, the Zaawnea occurs on the coasts of 
Haste Africa—across the Arabian Sea—as well. With these two exceptions, 
however, all of the littoral species occur on Malay Coasts, and it is significant of 
the extent to which the sea-board flora is Malayan rather than Indian, When we 
observe that though 39, or over 97 °/,, of them are found in Malaya, no fewer 
than 8, or 20 °/,, of them are absent from the neighbouring Indian Coasts. 
The islands come, therefore, more within the influence of those ocean-currents 
that sweep up from the south-east from Malayan Seas than does the Indian 
Coast ; their shores, therefore, have some of the species characteristic of nearly 
every tropical coast from Fiji to the Seychelles that are wanting in India. 
Of inland as opposed to littoral species those that are wind-introduced, as being 
likely to appear earliest, are the first to be considered. These are Phanerogams 
with seeds or fruits fitted for wind-carriage—of which there are here but two 
unequivocal examples (7ylophora and Leptadenia)—and small spored Cryptogams, 
of which there are 14, The two Phanerogams are species confined to South- 
Eastern Asia ; of the Cryptogams, on the other hand, 10 are cosmopolitan in the 
tropics ; one (Trametes Muelleri, which occurs likewise in Australia and in South 
America) is nearly so ; another (Calymperes Dozyanum) oceurs throughout South- 
Eastern Asia and in Polynesia ; only two are confined to South-Eastern Asia, 
and of these one has, so far as is at present known, been found only in Minikoi, 
Of the species introduced by birds, whether by being carried in pellets of mud 
or otherwise attached to their feet or their feathers, or carried ag undigested 
seeds in their crops, the flora affords very few examples. 
Of the former subgroup, consisting of marsh weeds with small seeds or fruits, 
there are but 9 unequivocal examples. They are, as a rule, widely distributed 
Species ; here, for example, three occur in both hemispheres—two are found 
throughout the tropics of the old world ; one extends from India to Polynesia. 
Only one is confined to South-Eastern Asia, and of one—the Chara, whose 
Specific identity is unknown—we cannot speak. 
Of the second subgroup, species with soft fruits but resistent seeds, there are 
only 8 clear examples. Their most notable feature as compared with the last is 
their confined distribution. None are cosmopolitan, only one extends eastwards 
as far as Polynesia, and this one (Ficus nitida) does not even in that direction 
pass beyond New Caledonia ; at the same time only one (Datura fastuosa) ex- 
tends to America, and though its introduction by birds is clearly possible,* it is, no 
doubt, more usually introduced by man. While three Species extend to Austra- 
lia and four to the Mascarene Islands or Africa, it is worthy of note that none of 
* Prain, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1891), p. 171. 
