172 THE B')TANY OF CHRISTMAS ISLAND. 



CruciferJS: 

 Sinapis nigra, L. 



I found a single stunted plant of what appeared to be 

 this in waste ground near the quarries on Phosphate 

 hill evidently an escape from cultivation. 



PoRTULACACE^E. 



Portulaca oleracea, L. 



The common Purslane is abundant in Flying Fish 

 Cove and also at the Waterfall. 



This plant was? not obtained by any of the previous 

 collectors and is probably a recent introduction. It is 

 a widely distributed weed occurring in all warm 

 countries on sea shores and sandy or open places. It is 

 described by Hemsley ( Voyage of the Challenger, 

 Botany vol. I. p. 35 ) as certainly sea-dispersed, and 

 so it seems to be as it occurs on almost all oceanic is- 

 lands, but it is also apparently carried about accident- 

 ally by man, and then readily spreads, as it is often 

 abundant in estates and waste ground where there 

 seems no other reason for its presence. Hemsley talks 

 of it too as a cultivated plant, and thinks that its wide 

 distribution may be due to that cause. I have never 

 seen it cultivated in the East, nor used by any native 

 race for food, certainly neither Chinese nor Malays eat 

 it here so still less do they cultivate it. Into Christ- 

 mas Island it certainly seems to have come as an 

 accidental weed, as it did not occur in any place where 

 other weeds had not already come, or where there had 

 not been some cultivation close by. I do not know 

 whether it has ever been recorded that this plant clones 

 up its leaves at night, like Phyllanthus and other such 

 plants. 



Pittospore.e. 



Pittosporum nativitatis Baker, was described in the Monograph 

 of Christmas Island p. 171, fig. XVII, from plants collect- 

 ed by Andrews on the plateau on the East Coast. It is 



Jour, y traits' Branch 



