WEST INDIAN BEACH-DRIFT 



7 



Method of Identifying the Constituents of the Drift. — My 

 previous experience of the seed-drift of the islands of the Pacific and 

 more especially of the American borders of the ocean, as in Ecuador 

 and at Panama, had made me familiar with many of the constituents 

 of West Indian drift. On the other hand, my later West Indian 

 experiences helped me to identify constituents in the drift on the 

 Pacific coasts that I had not before recognised. The method em- 

 ployed was to search for the parent plant. In some cases a long 

 time passed, as in that of Dioclea reflexa, before success crowned my 

 efforts. This plant is of particular interest, as it is one of the few 

 possessing seeds that are transported by the Gulf Stream in a sound 

 condition to the shores of Europe. Ultimately I tracked it to one of 

 its homes in the mountains of Grenada, and one of my chief objects 

 of making a sojourn of some weeks in that locality was to investigate 

 the conditions that led to its supplying its seeds to the drift. 



The same plan was followed in Jamaica whenever I came upon 

 some new seed or fruit on the beaches. With the aid of my coloured 

 companions, who were very zealous in helping me to find its source, 

 it was often not very difficult. Thus it was not long before I found 

 the parent plants of the Anchovy tree (Grias cauliflora) and of the 

 large seeds of the Antidote Vine (Fevillea cordifolia) so common on 

 beaches in the Black River district. 



Certain seeds and fruits common in the Jamaican drift eluded 

 my efforts in this direction, and usually because the plants did not 

 grow in the island. Two conspicuous offenders in this way were the 

 fruits of Sacoglottis amazonica and Manicaria saccifera, two of the 

 most interesting components of West Indian beach-drift. However, 

 I was introduced to them by the late Mr. Hart of Trinidad. The 

 source of the fruits of the first named was for a long time unknown, 

 and Mr. Hart played a prominent part in the inquiry that led to their 

 identification. Though not Jamaican, both are included in the 

 Trinidad flora, growing mostly as I learnt in the swamps on the 

 south side of the island. But as found on the Trinidad beaches the 

 fruits often display evidence of long flotation in the sea in the marine 

 organisms incrusting them. They have their chief home in the swamps 

 of the Amazon and the Orinoco, and many of the fruits found in the 

 Trinidad and Tobago beach-drift are doubtless thence derived. 

 It was the presence of these fruits of Manicaria and Sacoglottis on the 

 beaches of the south coast of Jamaica that long ago led Sir D. Morris 

 to recognise an element of drift hailing from the Orinoco and the 

 Amazon, a subject dealt with in connection with Jamaican beach- 

 drift in a later page. 



Orinoco and Amazon Drift distributed over the West 

 Indian Region. — " Orinoco drift " is a term often on the lips of 

 residents in Trinidad, Tobago, and Grenada. They apply it to all 

 the drift brought by the Equatorial Current, much of which must 

 come from the Amazon as well as from the shores of Brazil and of the 

 Guianas. Most of this drift finds its way into the Caribbean Sea 

 between Barbados and the Spanish Main, either entering the Gulf 

 of Paria and emerging through the Bocas, or floating through the 

 passages separating Trinidad, Tobago, and Grenada. As indicated 



