376 t>. Prain — Ths Vegetation of the Coco Group. [No. 4, 



wreck of a Coco-nut craft and, becoming aware of it, there is as little 

 doubt that they would soon consume every Coco-nut the vessel contained. 



Now that the Coco-nut tree is established in the islands, it germin- 

 ates profusely. Even towards the centre of the island on flat or muddy 

 tracts one meets with groves, containing from a score to several 

 hundreds of trees, that have originated from nuts which have been 

 floated inland by unusually high tides and left stranded far from the 

 coast. The stems of these inland examples are abnoi-mally tall, shoot- 

 ing up till the leafy head rises above the surrounding jungle ; as far as 

 can be seen, they do not flower till this happens. Once they have 

 flowered and fruited the fallen nuts multiply the species fifty-fold. 

 The nut appears to have but few enemies, and though a good many may 

 be seen with a hole drilled through the husk and with the kernel 

 scooped out, (apparently both crabs and I'ats are able to effect this,) the 

 number thus destroyed forms quite an inappreciable proportion of the 

 whole. The tree does not, however*, invade the ridges, the soil is doubt- 

 less, as it is in South Andaman, too poor to suit it ; while in trees 

 growing along the bays on the west side of Great Coco the contents of 

 the nut are distinctly less and their quality is appreciably poorer than 

 in trees at the head of the bays on the opposite side ; these in turn 

 produce nuts that do not bear comparison with the magnificent ex- 

 amples gi"Own in the Nicobars. 



In the subjoined table the distribution of the " civilized " species is 

 given ; in those cases where the species is believed to be truly indigenous 

 in a particular area the distribution mark indicating the area in question 

 is enclosed within ( ) brackets. From this table we learn that 28 of 

 these species, or 80 per cent, of the whole, are cosmopolitan in the 

 tropics, and that, with the exception of one weed and two cultivated 

 species, which do not occur in the Orient, they are sub-tropical as well 

 as tropical species. The original home of about one-half of the species 

 is known with some degree of certainty and it is interesting to note 

 that 7, or 20 per cent, of the class, are originally natives of the New 

 World, introduced in consequence of human intei'course into, and now 

 established in, the Eastern Hemisphere as well. Ten of them are known 

 to be natives of South-Eastern Asia ; only six of these have spread 

 beyond that area. 



