JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 



Part II.— NATURAL SCIENCE. 

 No. IV.— 1890. 



XVIII. — Natural History Notes from H. M.'s I. M. Survey Steamer 

 " Investigator," Commander R. F. Hoskyn, R. N., Commanding — 

 No. 17. A List of Diamond Island Plants. — By D. Prain. 

 [Received and re^id — 7th May 1890.] 



§ Introductory. 



Diamond Island is a small lozenge-shaped islet off tlie Arracan 

 coast. It is situated at the month of the Bassein River, in Lono-. 94° 

 18' E. and Lat. 15° 51' N., about 5 miles from Pagoda Point, 8 from 

 Cape Negrais, and 9 or 10 from the lighthouse on Algunda reef. Its 

 length is somewhat under a mile and a half, and it is about three quar- 

 ters of a mile wide. The N. E. and S. W. corners which terminate its 

 longer axis rise rather abruptly from the sea. Except, however, at the 

 extreme eastern end its shore all round is rather bluff and rises rapidly 

 to what is rather a central small plateau than a ridge, the general level 

 of this central portion being about sixty feet above the sea. There are 

 three small breaks, however, in the sea- face ; a little water-channel, dry 

 in November, opens to the north ; another, with a very little water in 

 November, opens to the south ; a third, somewhat larger and quite near 

 to the last, has at one time found its way to the sea through the small 

 patch of flat land on the east, but a bund having been thrown across its 

 course, about 100 yards from the sea, its channel has been converted into 

 a tank about 150 yards long and 40 wide. 

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