1891.] D. Prain— r^ie Vegetation of the Coco Group. 295 



however, on the Little Coco, The principal grass on these slopes, and 

 throughout the two clearings as well, is the very uninviting Andropogon 

 contortus, mixed with a small amount of Ischcemum ciliare; besides these 

 there is some Cyperus polystachyus, and in the clearings of both islands 

 jEleusine indica in tafts, with here and there a little Panicum colonum. 

 In Table Island, though not in Great Coco, Eleusine cegyptiaca and Panic- 

 um Ilelopus have also become established. In this connection it should 

 be mentioned that Thuarea sarnientosa, which is the common sward- 

 grass under the coco-nut trees of Great Coco, is very rare in Little Coco ; 

 the only spot where the coco-nut zone is there of any width has Ischcemum 

 muticum growing throughout it in abundance j in Great Coco Ischcemum 

 muticum is rare. 



On the low ground the epiphytes in the taller trees are two species 

 of Hoya, Scindapsus officinalis, Dendrobium secimdum (the only common 

 light-loving orchid, which is particularly common on trees of Heritiera 

 littoralis, etc., about the mouths of creeks), BavalUa solida, Polypodium 

 (Niphohohis) adnascens, and Polypodium quercifolium. There is a great 

 absence of epiphytes from the trees growing in the interior, the ferns 

 mentioned are in particular confined to the trees nearest the sea. In the 

 muddy ground behind mangrove-swamps there are on the stems of 

 Cynometra and other trees, great numbers of an orchid that proves, on 

 having been flowered in the Calcutta garden, to be a Borites with violet 

 flowers ; apparently, however, it is only a variety of D. Wightii. 



Perhaps a better idea of the vegetation of the islands may be ob- 

 tained if extracts from the writer's notes, enumerating the species met with 

 in particular localities, be given. Of these only a few are selected, illus- 

 trative, as far as possible, of diffei'ent kinds of soil and of diverse situa- 

 tions. From these it will be seen that any attempt to divide the forest 

 into distinct zones and regions is attended with difficulty, since the 

 various forests — Mangrove, Beach, Mud-flat, and Dr^z-ncZ^e jungles — merge 

 into each other on every hand. 



In crossing the island on the drier level ground near the south 

 end of the island one finds after the belt of coco-nuts, which is there 

 about 100 yards wide on the western side, a jungle at first not very 

 dense of Ganariutn commune; Aglaia andamanica; Miliusa ap. ; Gyrocarpus 

 Jacquinii, very common ; Mimusops littoralis, the most common tree, with 

 often great masses of Hoya, and near the sea with Polypodium querci- 

 folium as epiphytes — all the Mimusops here is uniformly dying back in 

 the topmost branches ; Bomhax sp., looking much more like B. mala- 

 baricum as to leaves than like the Andaman species identified by Kurz 

 withU. insigne ; Bracontomelum sylvestre ; Spondias mangifera; Seme'carpus 

 heterophylla ; Albizzia procera ; Bipterocarjncs sp. ; Sterculia alata ; Brio- 



