xxvii THE ABSENTEES FROM HAWAII 377 



a question of capacity for dispersal across an ocean, since birds 

 have transported across the Pacific to Hawaii the " stones " and 

 large seeds of genera like Elaeocarpus and Sideroxylon, a feat that 

 would have been deemed impossible by many botanists. It is no 

 lack of capacity for dispersal that has excluded Loranthus from 

 Hawaii and has admitted Viscum. 



Few genera, indeed, would seem to be better fitted for dispersal 

 by frugivorous birds in the Pacific than that of Ficus. Its fruits 

 are known to be eaten by birds all over the area of the genus ; and 

 we find the species distributed over the South Pacific from Fiji to 

 Tahiti, but they are quite absent from Hawaii. This is the more 

 remarkable on account of the occurrence of a species of Ficus 

 resembling a banyan in Fanning Island about 900 miles south 

 of the group {Bot. Chall. Exped., iii. 116, 194), and because the 

 Hawaiian Islands possess the Meliphagidse or Honey-eaters, 

 which are widely distributed in Polynesia and are known to feed 

 on these fruits — a matter further discussed in my treatment of Ficus 

 later on in this chapter. 



Of several Rubiaceous genera with fleshy fruits that are repre- 

 sented both in Fiji and Tahiti, such as Stylocoryne and others, and 

 of those Rubiaceous genera with minute seeds that, like Ophiorrhiza, 

 are distributed over the South Pacific, none occur in Hawaii. Here we 

 find represented other genera of the order, like Gardenia, Plectronia, 

 and Coprosma, that do not appear to be better fitted for dispersal 

 by frugivorous birds than many of the genera not existing there. 

 If birds have carried to Hawaii in their plumage the fruits of 

 Pisonia and Sicyos, it cannot be merely a question of capacity for 

 dispersal that is concerned with the restriction to the South Pacific 

 of genera with hairy seeds, such as Trichospermum, Alstonia, and 

 Hoy a. 



It is unnecessary to dwell longer here on the subject of the 

 Hawaiian absentee-genera, since many of the absent plants will be 

 discussed when dealing with the peculiarities of the Fijian flora. 

 The data there given all go to show that mere lack of capacity for 

 dispersal over the Pacific often counts for little in supplying us with 

 an explanation of the absence of so many likely genera from the 

 Hawaiian flora. Hawaii has only been stocked with those genera 

 common to Fiji and Tahiti that could have reached it during each 

 age of general dispersal over the Pacific. In later eras the dispers- 

 ing agencies have been mainly active in the tropical South Pacific ; 

 and thus it is that, as will be pointed out in a later page, the bulk 

 of the plants of the Malayan era are confined to the region between 



