THE BOTANY OF CHRISTMAS ISLAND. 237 



three at the flowers of plants growing in the Settle- 

 ment at Flying Fish Cove, this being the first record 

 for' this almost ubiquitous hawkmoth in the island. 

 The large corky seeds are sea-dispersed being well 

 adapted for this. Plants however occur often abun- 

 dantly in hollows in rocks far from the sea at the 

 present time, and at a great height above it, suggest- 

 ing that the ancestors of these plants were there 

 at the time when these now inland reefs were close 

 to the sea. The plant though doubtless rapidly dis- 

 persed by sea, moves but slowly inland and apparently 

 climbs up the rocks in the following manner. The 

 long peduncles after flowering droop as the fruit 

 develops till it reaches the ground when the seeds all 

 fall and usually lie in a pile on the ground, where 

 some at least germinate. On the sloping rock-faces 

 the peduncles which fall towards the upper slope drop 

 their seeds thus about four feet above the parent-plant, 

 and so it creeps gradually up. Seeds from peduncles 

 which droop downwards over the precipice either fall 

 into the sea, or into the woods at the base of the 

 precipice where they can seldom grow. Around the 

 Malay coasts the plant almost invariably grows in 

 sand or mud, close to the sea, but there is hardly any 

 suitable place for this on Christmas Island as all the 

 shores are mere masses of coral fragments turned over 

 by the waves in the seasons of gales, and with no soil 

 beneath. It grows however well enough where there 

 is soil in Flying Fish Cove. 



Crinum Asiaticum, L. is distributed over India, Ceylon, the 

 Malay Peninsula and Islands Admiralty Isles, Japan 

 and North Australia, Polynesia, Fiji Islands. 



Palm^e. 

 Arenga Listeri, Becc. 



A single stemmed palm about 30-70, feet tall and 6-15 

 inches through, grey and distinctly ringed. 



B.-'A.Soc, No 45; 1905 



