114 S. Kurz — A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Nicdbar Islands. [No. 3, 



the soft poly cistina- clay of which the island is formed, being unfavourable to 

 the growth of corals. As a consequence the marine vegetation of Kamorta 

 is very poor, and the algae chiefly found on its shores are Zonaria (small) , 

 Hypoghssum, Bostrychia, Gongroceras, and such like forms ; the numerous 

 seaweeds found washed ashore having possibly all been brought from the sub- 

 marine coral-reefs of Katchall and other islands. Of phanerogams, Enhalus 

 acoroides is the only representative : this is a plant which grows chiefly in 

 shallow waters at the debouchures of rivers, where it often forms whole sub- 

 marine meadows, apparently little caring for the mud which is carried into 

 the sea, and which often encrusts the whole plant. If we turn to Katchall, 

 the marine vegetation assumes quite a different aspect ; not only are small 

 Sargassa, Zonaria in large specimens, and other melanosperms richly 

 represented, but some of the coral-reefs are so densely covered with 

 numerous olive-brown, green (JJlvd), and red seaweeds, that it is often dif- 

 ficult to disentangle the different species. Such is especially the case along 

 the western shores of the island. On the submerged coral-reefs are found 

 also the marine phanerogams Halophila ovalis and a Oymodocea, together with 

 another plant having a very close resemblance to Mnhalus but much smaller. 

 Fragments of the Cymodocea can be seen floating in quantities ; which 

 indicates the presence of turtles. 



In drawing up the appended enumeration of the plants hitherto found 

 on these islands, I have to express my sincere thanks to Hofrath Dr. Fenzl, 

 Director of the Vienna Museum, who with rare liberality has not only 

 forwarded to me the collections made by Mr. Jelinek during the 

 stay of the Austrian frigate ' Novara' at these islands, but also pre- 

 sented to me a complete set of the duplicates. He has also entrusted 

 to me Mr. Jelinek' s MS. Journal, by means of which I have been enabled 

 to note the localities and native names. These vernacular names I have given 

 in the German mode of spelling adopted by Jelinek, as I thought it not 

 advisable to alter them. During Mr. A. 0. Hume's cruise round the Nicobars 

 in 1873, a small collection of plants (chiefly leaf-specimens) was made by 

 two native garden-collectors. Some of these proved new to the flora of the 

 Nicobars or furnished additional localities ; they are all marked in the 

 following list with "g. c." (garden-collectors). 



A number of the plants included in the following list are taken from 

 Dr. Diedrichsen's list. These are marked " teste D." between brackets. 



