V THE FIJIAN STRAND-FLORA 45 



scrub-covered, rolling country at the back of the beaches ; and 

 doubtless that which I have described in the case of Fiji is to 

 be found in other tropical coast-regions. Professor Schimper 

 informed me by letter that he had noticed a similar inland exten- 

 sion of the shore-plants in the Seychelles I have only here 



touched on this subject. In Notes 20 and 21 the reader will find 

 further details of the inland extension of the beach-plants, and in 

 Note 22 is given a general account of the "talasinga" plains, 

 in which the wandering beach-plants mingle with the peculiar 

 vegetation of the plains themselves. Covered with reeds and 

 bracken, and dotted over with clumps of Casuarinas and Acacias, 

 with the Cycad and Pandanus distributed irregularly over their 

 surfaces, such level districts possess, as remarked by Seemann, 

 a South Australian look. 



THE GROUPING OF THE FIJIAN LITTORAL PLANTS. 



The littoral plants readily divide themselves into three princi- 

 pal groups as concerning their station, namely : 



(a) The " beach-formation," typically exhibited on the whitish 

 calcareous beaches of reef-bound coasts. 



{b) The " mangrove-formation," found at intervals all along the 

 coasts, but most fully developed at the estuaries, and for the most 

 part occupying flats regularly overflown by the tide. 



{c) The " intermediate formation," comprising the plants of the 

 tracts between the beach and the mangrove-swamp and at the 

 borders of the swamps. 



This grouping does not differ materially from that adopted by 

 Professor Schimper in the instance of the Indo-Malayan strand- 

 flora. (See Note 23.) 



To the beach-formation belong, amongst the trees and shrubs, 

 Barringtonia speciosa, Calophyllum Inophyllum, Guettarda 

 speciosa, Pemphis acidula, Scsevola Kcenigii, Tournefortia 

 argentea, &c., and amongst the creepers and procumbent plant-s, 

 Canavalia obtusifolia, Ipomea pes caprse, Triumfetta procumbens, 

 &c. To the mangrove-formation belong the Asiatic and the 

 American species of Rhizophora, and species of Bruguiera, Carapa, 

 Lumnitzera, &c. Amongst the trees that gather around the 

 borders of the mangrove-swamp, constituting the intermediate 

 formation, occur Barringtonia racemosa, Excsecaria Agallocha, 

 Heritiera littoralis. Hibiscus tiliaceus, and several other species, all 

 of them being equally at home on the sandy beach, at the border 



