39 



2. Terminalia catappa L. (2 specimens). 



A tree which in Java is common on sandy beaches and also 

 occurs along the lower course of some rivers. The reproduction takes 

 exclusively place by fruits ') which are very often washed ashore '-). 

 The low beaches of Krakatao are very favorable to this tree, which 

 was found there on many excursions. 



3. Cocos nucifera L. ;i ) (I specimen). 



This palm is extensively cultivated in the Dutch East-Indies, 

 especially in the coastal regions and the lower plains. On the beach 

 one often finds its fruits, which, as a rule, are either unripe or so 

 much damaged as to be unfit to germinate *). It seems that T r e u b 

 did not examine whether the coco-nut found by him had preserved 

 its germinative power. Eleven years afterwards P e n z i g Sjt found no 

 coco-palms in the same locality. In 1906 Ernst Jand his companions 

 found near Zwarte Hoek some young specimens. In 1908 these 

 specimens had disappeared but I found a few very young trees rather 

 far behind the flood-mark. If these specimens had remained in life 

 they would in 1919 have been rather large and have fructified. But 

 Docters vanLeeuwen mentions (l ) to have found there only 

 a few young specimens, and these stood more to the south-east, so 

 that they can not have been the same as those of 1908. It is generally 

 believed but was never proven that fruits of this species are carried 

 over long distances by ocean-currents without losing their germinative 

 power so that by this means the plant can establish itself in the 

 locality reached. But it is certain that man takes a very active part 

 in its distribution. The numerous coco-palms on the coral islands in 

 the lava-sea and along the coast of Java ') are all planted specimens. 



1 ) Described by Schimper Indo-Malayische Strandflora (1891), p. 170. tab. VII, 

 fig. H. 



2 ) G u p p y found them washed ashore on the Keeling-islands. 



3 ) In I r e u b's paper by misprint suceifera. 



4 ) Cf. Schimper, Indo-Malayische Strandflora (1891). pp . 101. 102.- Ernst. 

 [Neue Flora Vulkaninsel Krakatau (1907). p. 28] also declares that the coco-nuts 

 found in 1906 on the beach of Krakatao were ,,von Fieren siebachtig durchbohrt 

 oder vollig ausgehohlt". 



5 ; Ernst, Neue Flora Vulkaninsel Krakatau (1907) Id. 



) Ann. |ard. Botanique Buitenzorg XXXI (1919). 111. 



") Koorders (Exkursionsflora I, 246) mentions that the found undoubtedly wild- 

 growing coco-palms in East-Java but he does not give any other reason for his belief 

 than that the fruits of the trees in question were small and thick-walled. This form of 

 coco-nut, he says, is never cultivated. But it is already mentioned in Miguel, Flora 

 Indiae Batavae III (1855), p. 71 under the cultivated forms of Cocos nucifera as var. 

 cistifarmis and recently it has also been found cultivated in Sumatra. The shell of this 

 variety is often used for native carvingwork. Cf. Heyne, Nuttiye Planten Ned. Indie, 

 2e druk, I (1927J p. 411 sub var. cystiformis. 



