AN EXPEDITION TO CHRISTMAS ISLANDS. 139 



like Clerodendron inerme but of which I could never find a 

 trace of flowers or fruit, Crinum asiaticum and Ipomea pesca- 

 proe were abundant there also. 



Next day was devoted to the flora of the Cove and beyond 

 Smith Point. IJere just beyond the Magistrate's house there 

 is a short track to the point, a mass of sharp-pointed coral 

 with the regular seashore trees, Pisonia grandis, Ochrosia, 

 Ficus retusa, JPandanus nativitatis forming dense thickets 

 while on the barer rocks overhanging the sea are bushes 

 of Pemphis acidula and Scoevola with much of the grass 

 Ischoemum, and Euphorbia hyper ici folia, and I added to the flora 

 here>Cyperus Iria, and a small Selaginella of which one or two 

 bits were found growing in a hole in the rocks over the sea. 

 Further search on several occasions was not rewarded by a 

 single scrap more of this unexpected find. The great and con- 

 tinued hot and dry weather had dried up many of the smaller 

 herbaceous plants, and this plant should be carefully sought 

 again in damper weather. There is a fine view from Smith 

 Point both into Flying Fish Cove and to North West Point 

 and it is possible to push along the cliff edge by tracks used by 

 fisherman for some way. 



Dr. Hanitsch meanwhile had found a small puddle of water 

 on the top of a rock containing Copepoda, which were carefully 

 collected. A number of interesting plants were collected in- 

 cluding fruiting specimens of Acronychia Andreivsi. The fruit, 

 not previously described, is a small juicy flesh-coloured berry 

 Erythrina indica was in flower and visited by numerous white- 

 eyes which sought for insects among the scarlet blossoms. 

 The tree appears not to be common now and I saw it nowhere 

 else but here and round the Cove. I picked up flowers of it 

 in the same district when I visited Christmas Island fourteen 

 years previously. Among the rocky woods beyond Smith 

 Point I found a large puff ball about 4 inches tall with a broad 

 stalk and a rounded top, 3^ inches through. It was of a pale 

 fawn colour outside, but when the outer coat was rubbed off 

 bright yellow beneath, the flesh was white. There were a 

 good many of the soft fungi to be found in the earlier part of 

 our visit, in shady places, but as the country got dryer 



R, A Soc, No. 45, 1905. 



