356 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



these plants have often been accidentally spread by man with his 

 cultivated plants, it is probable that sea-birds have regularly aided 

 in their dispersal. The fruits, on account of their small size and 

 their glutinous sticky surfaces, are well suited for transport in a 

 bird's feathers. Mr. Lister, as quoted by Hedley (from Proc. 

 Zoolog. Soc, 1 891), made an interesting note in this connection on 

 one of the islands of the Phoenix Group, where he found a fruit of 

 Boerhaavia tetrandra entangled in some of the down that had been 

 preened by a booby (Sula piscatrix) out of its feathers whilst 

 roosting in a clump of Tournefortia trees. 



Polygonum (Polygonaceae). — This genus is represented by the 

 cosmopolitan Polygonum glabrum, the only aquatic or semi-aquatic 

 plant that is generally distributed in the Pacific islands. It occurs 

 in fresh-water swamps and beside streams and ponds in Tahiti, 

 Tonga, Fiji, Hawaii, &c., and was gathered by Banks and Solander 

 when Captain Cook first visited Tahiti. That this plant has been 

 distributed by geese, ducks, and waterfowl over the tropics of the 

 globe can scarcely be doubted. In England I have found the 

 nutlets of Polygonum convolvulus, P. persicaria, and P. aviculare 

 in the stomachs of a wild duck and a curlew ; and they came 

 frequently under my notice in the crops and intestines of different 

 kinds of partridges and of wood-pigeons. Though most of the 

 fruits were generally injured, a few of them were not uncommonly 

 obtained in a sound condition. 



PiPTURUS (Urticaceae). — This is a genus of small trees and 

 shrubs found in the Mascarene Islands, Malaya, Australia, New 

 Zealand, and throughout Polynesia. Besides P. albidus, which is 

 confined to Hawaii and Tahiti, there are two Malayan species, 

 P. argenteus and P. velutinus, which are widely distributed over the 

 islands of the South Pacific, extending to Tahiti and the Marquesas. 

 The fleshy receptacle and small achenes of the compound fruit of 

 Pipturus give it the appearance of a white immature strawberry, 

 and as such it would be likely to attract frugivorous birds. Plants 

 of this genus are included amongst the numerous plants from the 

 bast of which the natives used to prepare their native cloth or from 

 which they obtained the fibres for their fishing-lines. 



BCEHMERIA (Urticacese). — There is an Asiatic species widely 

 spread in the South Pacific and another closely-allied species in 

 Hawaii ; but I possess no data relating to the dispersal of the 

 genus. The fruits are dry and consist of an achene in a persistent 

 perianth. 



DiANELLA (Liliacese). — This is a genus of herbs, possessing 



