Beccari and Rock — Pritchardia. 7 



had been one of the means by which some elements of the western Polynesian flora 

 were introduced into the Hawaiian Islands, one does not understand why no 

 species of Ficus has found its way there. And then, by what means were the 

 large fruits of Pr. Beccariana, Pr. arccina, Pr. Rockiaua, Pr. Gaudichaudii, Pr. 

 Lozvreyana, Pr. macrocarpa, enabled to reach high mountains, even their most 

 inaccessible summits? One really cannot conceive what agency can have trans- 

 ported thither such relatively voluminous fruits. It is a fact absolutely opposed 

 to what happens on the high Malayan mountains, where only plants having very 

 small seeds, easily transported by winds, or sought for by birds or other animals, 

 have succeeded in establishing themselves. At times the natives plant some 

 Pritchardias near their dwellings, but there is certainly no reason to think that 

 they planted palms in places inaccessible to themselves. At present it does not 

 seem that any terrestrial animals exist that feed on the fruits of the Pritchardias, 

 and contribute, even indirectly, to their dissemination by carrying their fruits into 

 nests or hiding places, such as the crevices of rocks, as do squirrels or rats. Yet 

 it is possible that in the past this work was performed by a species of rat (Rattiis 

 hawaiiensis) , now generally believed extinct, but which Professor Rock informs me, 

 has been found on an islet off the coast of Oahu.'' The rats now met with in the 

 Hawaiian group have only been introduced there since the days of ocean shipping. 

 Another animal of recent introduction into this group is the mongoose (Herpcstes), 

 which seems, however, to contribute more to the destruction of the Pritchardias 

 than to their preservation and dissemination. At least this appears to be the case. 

 The immature fruits of Pr. Martii, at least, are destroyed by the mongoose to a 

 degree that makes it difficult to procure ripe fruits for the purpose of propagation. 



To give a probable account of the geographical distribution of the Pritchar- 

 dias, it may be necessary to have recourse to the hypothesis that during a former 

 epoch the fruits of certain species or genera of plants which possessed great facili- 

 ties for reproduction were transported from one island to another by means of 

 ocean currents or by birds — a hypothesis which involves the assumption that 

 during this hypothetical epoch the enormous distances which now exist between 

 the island groups in the Pacific were bridged by means of islands which have 

 now vanished. 



We cannot refuse to admit that the present geological structure and config- 

 uration of the islands forming the Hawaiian archipelago are very different from 

 those which existed before great seismic cataclysms raised the present mountains 

 and broke the original land into fragments. We can picture to ourselves a period 

 of geological calm in which the area now occupied by the Hawaiian Islands was a 

 flat plain like the Aru Islands, without volcanic cones or precipitous mountains. 



This period corresponded probably to an epoch in which the various frag- 

 ments of land scattered in the Pacific, the Hawaiian group being among them, were 



4 Stone, Witmer, The Hawaiian rat. Stokes, J. F. G., Notes on the Hawaiian rat: Bishop Museum Occasional Papers, 

 ol. Til, No. 4, 1917- 



