488 
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES, sine NATURAL 
HISTORY NOTES FROM H. M. I, M. SURVEY 
STEAMER “INVESTIGATOR,” CommanpER 
Rk, F. HOSKYN, R.N., COMMANDING. 
Series II, No. 5. By D. Pram. 
Additional Note. 
Since this paper was published, the writer has learned that while it is true 
that in Sir Wm. Robinson’s day the Southern Laccadive islands belonged to 
the Cannanore 7aj, and though this arrangement was still in force at the time 
of Mr, A, O. Hume’s visit in 1875, very shortly after this date they were, 
owing to revenue arrears, placed directly under British rule,* 
The name given in this paper to the excavated areas under cultivation is 
wrong. Sir Wm. Robinson gives two names—the éot or kat, and the writer, 
following what has become the more usual custom, has unfortunately employed 
the latter only, But itis the word ¢ot, which is a form of the Malayalam 
word for garden, that should alone be used; the word hat is aform of a 
Malayalam word for forest or jungle and is altogether inapplicable, The 
writer is indebted to Mr. Winterbotham, Collector of Tanjore, for kindly point- 
ing out this error to him. 
Mr. Winterbotham informs him also that on Suhelipar reef there is an 
island, Suheli ; and that it has coco-nut .trees.t 
In addition to the species enumerated in the list of plants should be inserted 
after n. 163, 163b. ALOcASIA INDICA, Linn., which, as_ well as Colocasia 
antiquorum, is cultivated in Kalpéni, and perhaps in some of the other islands, 
* Tt is characteristic of the inexactness of the information contained in the Imperzal 
Gazetteer of India that even its second edition (1886) makes no mention of this not un- 
important fact, 
What would happen were these arrears to be paid up, it is very hard to predict. The 
inhabitants of the southern islands, after nearly twenty years’ experience of settled British 
administration, declare that they willresist by force any attempt on the part of the Can- 
nanore raj to re-impose on them a native domination. 
{ It is not unlikely that, as in Bitrapar, these cocoenut trees have been planted. The 
island has a particularly fine lagoon and is often visited for its nuts and coir; doubtless it 
would be permanently inhabited were it not that, again exactly as in Bitrapar, when wells 
are dug only brackish and undrinkable water is obtained. One of the special features of 
Suheli is the presence of a large Banyan tree, clearly a planted species. 
