140 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



half a mile from the beach in Grand Turk all floated in sea- water and 

 fresh-water. It appears, then, that an inland station does not 

 deprive the seeds of their buoyancy in the Turks Islands, though 

 in the case of plants growing inland on the old lava-fields of Hawaii 

 this effect was produced. 



There seems at one time to have been a trade in the seeds of 

 G. bonducella and G. bonduc between the New and the Old World. 

 Sloane makes the curious observation (Nat. Hist. Jam., II., 41) that 

 those of the grey-seeded " Nicker " plant (G. bonducella) were much 

 esteemed for their medicinal virtues by the Turks. Respecting those 

 of the yellow- seeded " Nicker " plant (G. bonduc) of the West Indies 

 he writes that " the seeds are brought very plentifully into Europe 

 for making buttons " (Ibid.). 



I am indebted to Prof. Ewart for the record of the occurrence of 

 two stranded seeds of Guilandina bonducella on the shores of South 

 Australia. They were found by Miss M. O'Dowd in 1912. He 

 considers that they may have been transported there from the 

 Queensland coast. They, however, did not prove to be germinable. 

 As far as the current connections are concerned, it seems to me 

 more likely that if brought from a distance these seeds must have 

 hailed originally from Tropical East Africa or Madagascar. In that 

 case they would have been carried by the Agulhas Stream within 

 the influence of the West Wind Drift Current, and then across the 

 Indian Ocean to Australia. This source is distinctly indicated by 

 the tracks of bottle-drift reaching the Great Australian Bight, a 

 subject discussed in Chapter XIII. 



Hymen^a 



Amongst the characteristic fruits of the Turks Islands drift occur 

 two kinds of ligneous indehiscent legumes, of which one kind was 

 identified by Prof. Pax as the fruit of Hymencea courbaril, the West 

 Indian Locust-tree, whilst the other he considered to belong to an 

 allied species of the same genus. These drift pods often occur entire 

 with sound seeds ; whilst at other times some or all of the seeds are 

 decayed. 



Hymenaea courbaril is a tall tree found over much of the West 

 Indies and on the Central and South American mainland from 

 Panama to the Guianas. As concerning its insular distribution, the 

 fact that it occurs in Cuba, Jamaica, Porto Rico, Antigua, Dominica, 

 St. Lucia, Trinidad, etc., indicates its wide range. It grows both in 

 inland plains and in river valleys. In Jamaica it flourishes in all 

 parts of the island and especially up the valley of the Black River 

 (Fruits, etc., of Jamaica, by E. J. Wortley, Kingston, 1906). The 

 legumes of this tree, as they occur in the drift of the Turks Islands, 

 are broad, flat, 5 or 6 inches long, and contain about six seeds 

 in a dry fibrous pulp that fills the fruit cavity. The seeds possess 

 no buoyancy, and could only be transported across tracts of sea by 

 the floating pod, which seems stout enough (the thickness of the 

 walls being 3 to 4 mm.) to withstand the wear-and-tear of a passage 

 across the Atlantic, though it is doubtful whether it would retain 



