JOURNAL 



OF THE 



Part II.— NATURAL SCIENCE. 

 No. IV.— 1891, 



'X.U,— Natural History Notes from H. M.^s I. M. Survey Steamer 

 " Investigator," Gommander R. F. Hosktn, R. 'N., Commanding — 

 No. 25. The Vegetation of the Goco Group. — By D. Prain. 



[Received— Oct 23rd ; read -4th Nov. 1891.] 



§ Introductory. 



The Oocos are a small group of three islands, Table Island, Great 

 Coco, and Little Coco, lying aboiit 30 — 45 miles north of Landfall Is- 

 land, the most northerly of the Andaman group proper, in Lon. 93° 21' 

 E., Lat. 13° 56' to 14° 10' N., and form one of the links in the island- 

 chain that stretches southvfards from Cape Negrais in Arracan to the 

 Nias Islands off the western coast of Sumatra. 



The first link in this chain is Diamond Island, Lon. 94° 18' E., Lat. 

 15° 51' N., ? miles south of Cape Negrais and 130 miles north-north-east 

 of the Cocos ; the next is the island of Preparis, (not yet botanically 

 investigated), larger than Diamond Island but smaller than the Great 

 Coco, 80 miles south-south-west from Diamond Island and. 50 miles to 

 the north of the Cocos. The strait between Diamond island, and Pre- 

 paris is somewhat under 100 fathoms, that between Preparis and the Cocos 

 somewhat over that depth. The channel between the Great and the Little 

 Coco is under 50 fathoms, a depth not greatly if at all exceeded in the 

 passage between the Cocos and Landfall. The next link in the chain 

 is the Andaman Group proper, extending from about Lat. 10° 40' to 



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