336 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



It will be appropriate here to refer briefly to the station and 

 mode of occurrence of the species. They occur most typically as 

 forest-trees, often of considerable height. In New Zealand, accord- 

 ing to Hochstetter, they form a feature in the temperate rain- 

 forest ; and, as we learn from Kurz, they are similarly conspicuous 

 in the tropical rain-forests of Pegu. To this seeming indifference 

 to the varying thermal conditions of different latitudes we shall 

 have subsequently to refer again. The tree of the Hawaiian 

 Group, as Hillebrand tells us, is common in the forests of Oahu 

 and Kauai, but is scarce in Maui and Hawaii, a singular distribu- 

 tion that may be due to the inflorescence being " often monstrously 

 deformed by oviposition of some dipterous insect." The Raro- 

 tongan species, according to Cheeseman, is common throughout 

 the island from the sea-level to the tops of the hills. In Vanua 

 Levu I found that these trees preferred the crests of wooded 

 mountain-ridges or the partially vegetated mountain peaks. They 

 came under my notice in the forests of the island of Fauro, in the 

 Solomon Group, associated with other large trees of the genera 

 Canarium and Calophyllum. 



Much interest is attached to the mode of dispersal of this genus, 

 since in some species the size of the drupes and of the included 

 ■' stone " is so great that, judged by those species only, it might be 

 deemed impossible to attribute the existence of the genus in 

 isolated oceanic groups to the agency of frugivorous birds. We 

 are, however, compelled to appeal to the bird, since, as my 

 experiments in Fiji indicate, the genus has little or no capacity for 

 dispersal by currents, the " stone " when containing a seed always 

 sinking, whilst the entire fruit either sinks at once or floats heavily 

 for a few days. 



The degree of fleshiness of the drupes of Elaeocarpus varies 

 in different species, being sometimes slight and at other times 

 pronounced, but, speaking generally, they would be expected to 

 attract frugivorous birds. The colour of the fruits of some species 

 is dark and purplish, whilst in others it is a bright blue. In the last 

 case the fruits are very conspicuous and sappy. A Solomon 

 Island species collected by me and a Malayan species observed 

 by Ridley had bright blue fruits, and Cheeseman refers to the 

 Rarotongan species as possessing fruits of this hue. Their colour, 

 therefore, would often aid in attracting birds, and we are not 

 surprised to learn that they form a favourite food with fruit-pigeons, 

 parrots, and other frugivorous birds in different regions. Amongst 

 the fruits found by Professor Moseley in the crops of fruit-pigeons 



