XXVII FAGR^A 385 



out of the cocci, are not infrequently found in the drift of the estuary, 

 but they sink in a week or two. Other species examined showed 

 no capacity for dispersal by currents. The fruit of M. harveyana is 

 provided with a few prickles, but since it breaks up into the cocci, 

 from which the seeds soon fall out, these appendages could scarcely 

 aid its dispersal. 



Like many other genera, Tabern^montana, an Apocynaceous 

 genus distributed through the tropics, is represented in Polynesia by 

 a widely-ranging species, T. orientalis, which extends from Malaya 

 and Eastern Australia through all the large groups of the South 

 Pacific from the New Hebrides to Tahiti, and is associated in Fiji 

 with one or two peculiar species, one of which, according to 

 Mr. Burkill, is nearly related to it. This genus therefore seems 

 to illustrate the earliest stage in the Pacific of that process by 

 which a widely-ranging species takes on a polymorphous habit 

 and through its variations gives rise to different species in various 

 groups. Prof Schimper ranks T. orientalis amongst the Malayan 

 strand-flora ; but in Fiji the Tabernsemontanas are only littoral 

 where the soil is rich as in alluvial regions ; and they have no 

 capacity for dispersal by currents that is worth speaking of, the 

 seeds in the case of T. orientalis and another species sinking after 

 drying for years, whilst the follicles soon open in water and go to 

 the bottom in a few days. The observations of Gaudichaud and 

 Moseley indicate that some Malayan species are dispersed locally 

 by the currents {Bot. Chall. Exped., iii, 279, 293) ; but the fruits 

 of the genus are evidently quite unfit for oceanic dispersal by 

 this agency. We find in the bird the agent that has carried the 

 genus to the distant island-groups of the Pacific ; and from the 

 standpoint of dispersal the fruits may be placed with those of 

 Pittosporum and Gardenia, being follicular, and in the Fijian 

 plants possessing seeds, 5 to 10 millimetres in size, embedded in 

 a pulp. 



FAGR.EA, an Asiatic and Malayan genus of the Loganiaceae, is 

 represented in the Pacific by F. berteriana ranging through all the 

 groups and islands of the South Pacific from the Solomon Islands 

 and New Caledonia to Tahiti and the Marquesas, and by one or 

 two other species in Fiji. It is with Fagraea berteriana that we are 

 entirely concerned. The tree is often planted by the Pacific 

 islanders near their villages ; and since they value its timber and 

 use its large fragrant flowers for personal decoration and for other 

 purposes, it is probable that they have aided in its dispersal. But, 

 as shown below, it behaves in most localities as an indigenous 

 VOL. II C C 



