. D. Prain — The Vegetation of the Ooco Group. [iTo. 4, 



Kurz's description would suit them very well except that the transverse 

 veins are, in the Great Coco plant, even more prominent than in L. 

 speciosa ; the ligula however is very different. 



Mr. Knrz does not desci-ibe the ligula in L. speciosa ; it is, however, 

 shewn (perfectly accurately) in t. 13, f. 5. as cordate and entire — just 

 as it is in L. Jenhinsiana. In the species under review the ligula is 

 larger, ovate orbicular, and armed at the margin with small but hard, flat 

 black blunt spines, a character exhibited by no flabellate-leaved palm of 

 which specimens are preserved in Calcutta Herbarium. 



263. Calamus andamanicus Kurz. 

 In all the islands, common. 

 Andamans. 



264. Calamus tigrinus Kurz. 

 In all the islands, common. 

 Andamans, Tenasserim. 



265. COCOS NDCIFERA Linn. 



In all the islands, extremely abundant. Probably not truly in- 

 digenous, though perhaps not intentionally introduced. It has long been 

 known that this palm occurred on these islands ; the name " Cocos 

 Islands," applied to the group, is of older date than 1652, and it has 

 often been the subject of remark that while this is so and while every 

 island in the Nicobars, even uninhabited ones like Batti Malv, has 

 Coco-nut trees, the species is altogether absent from the intervening 

 Andaman islands. Kurz, in Forest Flora Brit. Burma, says the Coco- 

 nut occurs on north-east Andaman also, but the writer is unable to 

 ascertain on what authority, and the statement is contradicted by the 

 oflB.cers of the settlement at Port Blair who alone know the coasts 

 of the group intimately. There are here and there individual trees on 

 the Andaman coasts now ; Dr. Alcock tells me there is one on South 

 Sentinel ; the writer saw one on Rutland Island ; Captain Simpson, 

 Assistant Port Officer, Madras, tells me he recollects being in a small 

 bay in one of the islands of the Eastern Andaman Archipelago where 

 there are some trees. But all these are quite recent introductions 

 and are mainly due to the humanitarian efforts of the officers of the 

 Andamans who plant them when they visit various places along the 

 coasts ; the instance quoted by Captain Simpson is, however, attributed 

 to a wreck. No explanation based on the set of currents in these seas 

 is sufficient to explain the peculiar distribution of the Palm, and the 

 writer is inclined to believe that the presence of the species in the Coco 

 Islands is due to the wreck of some Coco-laden craft on their coasts. 



Once established the species spreads with great rapidity. On Barren 

 Island one tree was known in 1881 ; in 1891 thirteen were counted, of 



