3IO A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



widely distributed in the Old World, whilst in the Index Kewensis 

 a peculiar species is assigned to it. They form small trees of the 

 wooded mountain-slopes of Fiji ; whilst in Hawaii, beside occur- 

 ring in the lower forests, they may extend to altitudes of between 

 5,000 and 7,000 feet. In the connection that more or less exists 

 between the species of the South Pacific archipelagoes, and in the 

 endemic character of all the Hawaiian species, we see the principle 

 exemplified that there are two regions of distribution in the islands 

 of the tropical Pacific — the Hawaiian region and the South Pacific 

 region. 



Before their dehiscence, the wrinkled, woody capsules would 

 seem very unlikely to attract birds ; but the observer on handling 

 an opening fruit, with its orange or brightly coloured lining 

 and displaying black or dark-purple seeds immersed in a semi- 

 liquid pulp, would form a different idea of the plant's capacity for 

 this mode of dispersal. The mature dehiscing fruits are very con- 

 spicuous on the tree ; and the seeds covered with the " sticky " 

 material of the pulp might possibly adhere to birds pecking at the 

 fruit. But this would only aid in local dispersion, since the weight 

 and size of the seeds, 5 to 8 millimetres (jSj- to ^^inch), would unfit 

 them for this mode of transport across an ocean. They are, 

 however, sufficiently protected by their hard tests to be able to 

 pass unharmed through a bird's intestinal canal. 



Yet the distribution of the species of Pittosporum in the Pacific 

 would show that their dispersal is more a matter of the past than of 

 the present. Out of the ten peculiar Hawaiian species, Hillebrand 

 designates none as generally distributed over the group. But it is 

 evident that, though it is on the point of breaking off, some sort of 

 connection still exists in the South Pacific between the Tongan and 

 Fijian species, and until recently between the species of those two 

 groups and of Rarotonga. 



Reynoldsia (Araliaceae). 



The Polynesian genus of Reynoldsia, originally established 

 by Gray, is merged by Hooker and Bentham into the Malayan 

 genus Trevesia, a step that brings the Pacific plants into line with 

 many other of the plants hailing originally from the Old World. 

 The significant fact in the distribution of this genus of small trees 

 in the Pacific is that its dispersal over the ocean has ceased long 

 ago, since the three species here occurring are restricted each to a 

 particular group, namely, to Hawaii, Tahiti, and Samoa. Yet the 



