THE BOTANY OF CHRISTMAS ISLAND. 173 



abundant on the upper terraces at the cemetery, and 

 Phosphate hill and also on the Plateau. It is a small 

 tree 12 to 14 feet tall, with the foliage much like that 

 P. ferrugineum, common, near the sea and in dry places 

 inland. The flowers as described by Baker are in com- 

 pact heads at first but the panicle opens out later and 

 is nearly as wide as that of P. ferrugineum. They are 

 of the same yellowish white colour as those of that 

 species. It appears to be fertilized by wasps. 



The fruit is a capsule and appears to resemble that of 

 P. ferrugineum, the seeds of which are dispersed by 

 birds. 



Guttifeile. 



Ochrocarpus ovalifolius, T. Anders. 



A large tree with very coriaceous oblong dark green 

 leaves, and white flowers solitary or in pairs on the bare 

 portion of the branches below the leaves. Fruit oblong 

 conic eventually brown. 



Abundant on the first terrace from North East point 

 to steep point, collected on the East Coast also by 

 Andrews. The plant, known as Nyamplon, much 

 suggests Calophyllum in habit, but with much larger 

 leaves. The fruits are probably sea drifted. I found a 

 number of them under a rock in the woods at the water- 

 fall which had been carried there and eaten by rats. 

 Ochrocarpus ovalifolius is a native of the Admiralty 

 islands, Timor Laut and Pulau Sangian . 



Calophyllum Inophyllum, L. 



This common sea shore tree is not as plentiful as 

 would be expected in Christmas Island being confined 

 so far as I saw to the vicinity of the waterfall, where 

 there were a number of tall trees of it. It was not 

 in flower at the time of our visit, but weeds and fruit 

 were obtained. The locality was on the basaltic out 

 crop or very close to it, and it was probably due to the 

 volcanic soil or to the neighbourhood of subterranean 

 water that it grew there. This tree is common in the 



K, A. Soc, No. 45, 1905 



