36 



PLATE IX. 



CORAL REEF OF LUGUNOR, CAROLINE ARCHIPELAGO. 



VIEW OF A WOODY CORAL ISLAND, SEEN FROM WITHOUT. 



February. 



Imagine a generally horseshoe-like chain of comparatively long, narrow sand- 

 banks, hardly elevated above the level of the ocean, sheltered against the waves 

 by a coral reef surrounding the whole. Everywhere within the latter the water 

 is shallow ; the bottom, consisting of coral sand, is evidently rising and gradually 

 becoming dry land, so that the open narrow channels crossing the long ridge 

 of land, and dividing it into several islands, will in time disappear. The present 

 view represents one of these channels. Standing at the extremity of one island, 

 we look across upon the other ; on the right we have an expanded view of the 

 reef, distant about 200 paces, and behind it the surf of the ocean ; on the left 

 we behold the basin of unequal depth, surrounded by the horseshoe-like chain, 

 where the prospect is closed by a few islets of this self-same chain. Such coral 

 islands, but recently risen above the surface of the ocean, exhibit of course 

 no trace of the vegetation which establishes itself on the older ones. The first 

 green appearing on the hitherto naked sand, we found to be invariably the 

 shrubby Sccevola with small white flowers, which afterwards forms also the prin- 

 cipal brushwood of the shores ; a specimen of it is represented in the centre of the 

 foreground (6 g), and there is no difficulty in recognising it by its habit in the 

 more distant groups of bushes. The rich juicy foliage of this plant may be well 

 suited to the formation of vegetable mould, in which a more diversified vegetation 

 finds a home. Next follows a Tournefortia, common in all the islands of these 

 seas visited by us, which assumes more the look of a small tree, and has a less 

 bushy habit ; the silvery grey colour of its leaves forms a strong contrast with the 

 fresh light green of the Sccevola. A young specimen of this exclusively littoral 



