290 D. Prain — A List of Diamond Island Plants. [No. -i, 



Brought forward ... 95 



Absent from the Andaman-Nicobar district only ; 5 



Distributed throughout Arracan-Assam dis- 

 trict 3 



Kepresented in Arracan by the Diamond I. 

 gathering only 2 



Absent from the Pegu-Malaya district only 2 



[These sp. are both represented in Arracan by the Dia- 

 mond I. gathering only.] 

 Present only in Diamond Island {Ellipanthus eterculicefolius) 1 



Total 95 



The following remarks on this table may not be out of place. The 

 absence at once from the Andamans and from Ceylon of certain species 

 is at first sight good negative evidence of a statement made by Mr. 

 Knrz (Z. c. p. 15) concerning the Andamans ; — " A few Ceylon species 

 " indicate some relationship between the Andamans and that island." 

 But it is unwise to believe that a thing does not exist because it has 

 not been seen, and it is, as regards the Andamans at least, no evidence 

 because these species have not yet been met with yet that they do not 

 occur there. The positive evidence from the species that occurs in 

 Ceylon and is very frequent all along the Andamans group (Ipomcea 

 denticulata) but that nevertheless is absent from the western or Indian 

 shore of the Sea of Bengal is also without value. The curious but 

 constant feature as regards its habitat already remarked on, may ex- 

 plain its absence from the long line of sand-dunes that stretches from 

 the Coromandel Coast up to Orissa. At the same time, it must not be 

 supposed that Mr. Kurz's remark has been based on facts that are as 

 easily explained as these are.* 



In order to provide a basis for the computation of the relative value 

 of the Arracan, Pegu, and Andaman influences in the composition of 

 the Diamond Island flora, it is necessary to tabulate further the facts of 

 distribution so far as these three districts alone are concerned. 



* The writer has himself to add an instance quite as striking as any of those 

 that were met with by Mr. Kurz. In November 1889 he collected on Mount 

 Harriet in S. Andaman Strongt/lodon ruher Vogel, a Polynesian species that has a 

 somewhat peculiar distribution in that it also occurs in Ceylon ; to the Ceyloa 

 locality has now to be added that of S. Andaman also. 



