296 COEAL AND ATOLLS 



atoll grows upon tree-trunks ; not one of tliem grows upon 

 the ground. 



Concerning those plants the seeds of which are hard, and 

 fitted for a sea journey, some very interesting points are to 

 be noted. On the island beaches are many kinds of seeds 

 which may be picked up any day — there are perhaps half a 

 dozen kinds of which one specimen could be found, almost 

 with certainty, in a walk along a hundred yards of beach. 

 iSTow these seeds will grow with great readiness when picked 

 up and planted in the earth ; but as their leaves become 

 recognisable, you are at once astonished to see that they are of 

 a kind of which no representative may be found in all the atoll. 



It is a strange chapter in Nature's story, for these seeds 

 have been arriving at the atoll from time immemorial; they 

 have been cast on to its beaches by the waves, all ready 

 to grow, but unable to take root in the broken coral that 

 composes the beaches. A link in the chain is missing, for 

 there is no bird or beast that will move them the very short 

 distance to the resting-place where they could turn centuries 

 of failure into a successful colonising enterprise. The coco- 

 nut has become the dominant plant of. all atolls for the reason 

 that, where the ocean waves toss it, there will it grow ; and 

 it sprouts green and fresh within the lap of the waves. 

 The smaller seeds have been aided in their journey by birds or 

 by the wind ; but there is nothing that will give a helping 

 hand to the large " Queensland bean," and several others of 

 its kind, and assist it over the foot or two of coral beach 

 which cuts it off for ever from any hope of success. 



The colonists that are water-borne, and that have made 

 the passage in ships, are again of two very different companies ; 

 for some, man has introduced deliberately into the islands, and 

 some, despite his very best intentions, have accompanied him 

 on his travels. 



As a general rule, it may be said that those animals that 

 man has attempted to establish in the atoll have not thriven 

 exceedingly ; — whilst those that came with him against his 

 wish have multiplied to an unusual degree. 



