'J HE BOTANY OF CHRISTMAS ISLAND. 159 



small plants will be met with which were dried up at the time 



of our visit. 



Native Names. Mr. Andrews in his account of the flora gave a 

 number of native names which he had obtained appar- 

 ently from the Javanese temporarily employed on the 

 island, but these are of little importance, as nearly all 

 are either blunders by ignorant natives or ex- 

 pressions made up on the spur of the moment. Thus 

 Pongamia, well known as Malapari is called Kayu 

 Kwat, simply " strong wood." Ochrosia is given as 

 " Gundra Roussa " presumably a blunder for Genda- 

 rusa, (Justicia Gendarusa) from some fancied resembl- 

 ance of the leaves to those of the Justicia ; Berria 

 Ammonilla is given as Boognor, but it is really known 

 in the island as Bungoh i.e. Lazerstroemia, no doubt 

 on account of its hard wood ; Pisonia excelsa is called 

 Jamboe (i.e. Jambu), that is an Eugenia (Jambosa 

 section). No Malay who knew anything about the 

 plants would make such a mistake as this if he saw 

 the tree, nor would he call Kleinhovia Laban i.e. Vitex 

 puhescens. A few of the names of very common and well 

 known plants are correct Javanese names, such as 

 Ketapan, Waroo, Dadup. 



Distribution of the species. In giving the distribution of any 

 given species of plant, writers are apt to be very casual 

 in their localities, Malaya for instance is by some 

 authors made to cover anywhere from Tenasserim to the 

 Philippines, including three or four quite distinct 

 floras, and plants are described as " widely spread in 

 tropics " when in fact their area is circumscribed to a 

 small portion. The importance of distributional notes 

 depends entirely on their accuracy and their value con- 

 sists in the light that they throw on the origin of the 

 flora. Comparatively little literature and herbarium 

 material is at my disposal as I write this, but I have 

 given as many distributional notes as I can get, and 

 tried to distinguish indigenous plants (i.e. plants which 

 have arrived at the locality without the direct or indirect 



R. A, Soc, No. 45, 1905. 



