164 THE BOTANY OF CHRISTMAS ISLAND. 



ing through the ground till it reaches the basalt. 

 Many of the plants grow on bare rocks of coral reef, 

 others in masses of coral detritus. What wonder thrt 

 plants growing on such soils and with such a climate 

 should differ from those growing in permanently wet 

 woods with rich humus and little lime and phosphate. 

 Compare the damp dark forests rich in humus with 

 little lime which Carymbis veratrifolia inhabits with 

 the dry powdery dust of phosphate of iron and alumina 

 and broken coral reef in which C. angusta grows ; the 

 damp clay banks where Asystasia intrusa lives, with the 

 coral talus which A. alba frequents ; the low lying damp 

 open country inhabited by Callicavpa longifolia with 

 the plateau woods where the variety glabrescens grows 

 and one can not wonder these forms are very distinct. 

 It must be remembered that we have as yer no com- 

 plete knowledge of the floras of the adjacent islands, 

 and it is probable that some of these endemic species 

 will be found again in other Malayan islands. Some of 

 the plants indigenous to Christmas Island and not 

 classed as endemic are as yet only known to occur in 

 one other spot, e.g. Balanophora insularis and 

 Dendrocolla carinatifolia in Pulau Aur, an island lying 

 off the eastern coast of Pahang, and Sideroxylon 

 sundaicum, on Pulau Sangian. 



The greater number of the indigenous species how- 

 ever differ little or not at all from the forms known else- 

 where, though there seems among the trees to be a ten- 

 dency to greater size, probably due to some extent to 

 the absence of competition, of the plants found else- 

 where than in Christmas Island, nearly all have been 

 recorded from Java. The exceptions are. 



Ochrocarpus ovailjolius Admiralty Islands and Timor Laut 



Strongylodon ruber Andamans, Ceylon and Polynesia. 



Inocarpus edulis Polynesia. 



Quisqualis indica Burma, Malay Peninsula. 



Blumea spectabilis India, Ceylon, Malay Peninsula. 



Sideroxylon sundaicum Pulau Sangian. 



Jour. Htraits Branch 



