CH. V THE FIJIAN STRAND-FLORA 4t 



sight extremely puzzling. When, however, we regard their xero- 

 philous character and reflect that this habit, and not mere fitness 

 for growing at the coast, is the primary determining factor of their 

 station, much that is strange appears normal and plain. 



Let me refer in this connection to the impression that the 

 distribution of the Fijian shore-plants made on Mr. Home, the 

 director of the Botanic Gardens of Mauritius, who spent a year 

 in the botanical investigation of the group about a quarter of a 

 century ago. In his account of the group (pp. 59, 60) he says that 

 several of " what are known as sea-shore plants " are found far in 

 the interior of the larger islands ; and amongst others he names 

 such characteristic beach plants as Cerbera OdoUam, Hibiscus 

 tiliaceus, Ipomea pes caprae, and Pandanus odoratissimus. On the 

 other hand, he remarks that several species of inland plants occur 

 at the coast, and that several plants growing on the mountain-tops 

 are found near the sea. This apparent confusion of station he 

 seems to attribute to the circumstance that the mountains of Fiji 

 are not high enough for the development of an alpine flora. But 

 such a view could not be held now, since the effect of an alpine 

 flora would be the introduction of further elements of confusion in 

 the occasional occurrence of some of the alpine plants on the sea- 

 coast, as we find in Hawaii. 



Yet this apparent mingling of the littoral and inland floras in 

 Fiji becomes intelligible when we perceive that the seeming con- 

 fusion of station is mainly restricted to the xerophilous plants of 

 the arid inland plains and of the bare mountain-tops. The rank 

 humid forests that cover so much of the interior of the islands, and 

 the luxuriant vegetation of the mountain-gorges, are not here con- 

 cerned. Such a mingling occurs it is true under certain conditions ; 

 but in the general physiognomy of the flora the distinction between 

 the shore and inland plants holds good. The same shore plants 

 that are distributed far and wide over the Pacific here present 

 themselves ; and although some of them extend far inland, where 

 the scantily-vegetated plains descend to the coast, this does not 

 deprive them of the right of being still regarded as littoral 

 plants. 



Still, when we look at a fairly complete list of the shore-plants 

 of Fiji, numbering in all about eighty, we perceive that about two- 

 thirds of them also occur inland, either in Fiji or in some other 

 tropical region ; and if we reflect that many of the residue are 

 plants of the mangroves that would not be found inland except 

 under estuarine conditions, it becomes evident that with this 



