346 D, Prain — The Vegetation of the Coco Gh'oup. [No. 4, 



jungle only, such as Desmodium laxiflorum, JJrena lohata, Oyperus elegans, 

 Oplisinenus compositus, Panicum ino7itanmn, Alocasia fornicata, Gostus 

 speciosus, Zingiber sp., Amorphophallus sp., Acrostichum appendiculatum, 

 Ceratopteris thalictroides, etc., are not only very rarely met with, but are 

 represented by extremely few individuals where they do occur. 



Woody shrubs and small trees taken together do not, as regards 

 species, quite equal in number the large trees. In point of number of 

 individuals, however, this is not the case, for it is not unusual to find these, 

 woody shrubs and the smaller trees truly gregarious, particularly on the 

 ridges ; the chief examples are Glycosmis pentaphylla, Alsodeia bengal- 

 ensis, Glyptopetalmn calocarpttin, Cyclostemon assamicus, Macaranga 

 Tanarius, Miliusa sp., Gynometra rainiflora, Leea sambucina, Dendro- 

 calamus strictus ; a far larger area is covered by small trees and woody 

 undershrubs heavily loaded with creepers than is covered by tall forest. 

 In the mangrove-swamps most species may be spoken of as gregarious, 

 but even here there is no great number of trees over 40 feet high ; and 

 the only gregarious tall trees are Mimusops littoralis and Gyrocarpiis 

 Jacqtdnii, both denizens of the beach-forest behind the Coco-nut zone, 

 and Gocos nucifera itself. Among the arboreous species in these islands 

 have to be included Gycas Bumphii, which is veiy commonly 30 — 35 feet 

 high and of which one specimen measured in Great Coco had a clear 

 stem from ground to crown of 42 feet ; also Tournefortia argentea which 

 in Little Coco (and elsewhere in the Andaman group) is a tree 25 — 40 

 feet high with very black bark and a trunk often 3 — 3| feet in girth ; 

 Pongamia glabra too, recorded by Mr. Baker in the F. B. I. as sometimes 

 a climber, is here, as it also is in Bengal, always a tree from 20 — 60 feet 

 in height. Salacia prinoides on the other hand is here always a heavy 

 extensive climber. 



Erect woody species therefore, including both trees and shrubs in 

 this category, form almost exactly two-sevenths of the flora as regards 

 number of species. As regards individuals, however, it will be no over- 

 estimation to say that these constitute six-sevenths of the vegetation, not 

 merely in bulk but in actual number of individuals. 



Climbing species, as compared with those having an erect or 

 prostrate hal)it, show a much higher proportion of woody to herbaceous 

 species. This is owing to the fact that of the 78 climbers only two are 

 cryptogams, while in the other gi^oup 59 cryptogams are included. To 

 give therefore an accurate conception of the conditions that prevail, the 

 Cellular cryptogams ought to be excluded. Of the 312 Phanerogams 

 and Vascular cryptogams 234 are of erect habit and 78 are climbing, 

 giving a proportion of : — 



Erect sp. : climbing sp. : : 4 : 1. 



