FOREIGN DRIFT OF THE TURKS ISLANDS 149 



most float for only a day or two. Under any circumstances, how- 

 ever, the seed with its transient vitality, is quite negligible as an 

 independent agent in current-dispersal. 



The fruit of the Paki (C. cucurbitina), which displays on its surface 

 numerous pin-point pits, is ovoid or oblong, three to four inches long, 

 with a blunt terminal point, its cavity being filled with a white, spongy 

 pulp containing numerous non-buoyant seeds, 16 or 17 mm. across, 

 and thus much larger than those of the Calabash tree (C. cujete). 

 The seed contains a reddish embryo within a loose, white, mem- 

 branous, sac-like covering; but as compared with the seeds of the 

 Calabash tree those of the Paki are poorly protected, shrink greatly 

 on drying, and are still more perishable in their nature. The fresh 

 fruit floats, and was not uncommon in the drift of the Black River. 

 As with the gourd of the Calabash tree its buoyancy is due to the 

 air-bearing pulp and to the waterproof shell. Here also the pulp 

 of the mature fruit soon undergoes a softening and blackening 

 process; and here again the pulp and seeds ultimately dry up and 

 cake into a loose, blackened, rounded mass occupying but little 

 space in the fruit cavity, the seeds being dead and their embryos 

 blackened and often friable. The Paki gourds thus appear to be 

 even less fitted for the distribution of the tree through the agency 

 of the currents than those of the other species. But apart from the 

 condition of the seeds the gourd itself is less able to withstand the 

 " wear-and-tear " of oceanic dispersal, since the shell is thinner 

 (1 mm.) and more brittle than that of the fruit of the Calabash tree. 

 The fruits are also less frequent in the beach-drift of the Black River 

 coast than those of C. cujete. Their form, their pin-hole pits, and 

 their blunt terminal point, as well as their large seeds, readily dis- 

 tinguish them from the other gourds in the drift. They are described 

 by Miers in the Transactions of the Linnean Society, Vol. XXVI., 1870. 



In the Turks Islands I found these two gourds to be regular con- 

 stituents of the larger foreign drift of the beaches, as on Grand 

 Turk, Cotton Cay, Greater Sand Cay, etc. Those of the Calabash 

 tree were rather more frequent than those of C. cucurbitina in the 

 proportion of three to two. Most of the former were the smaller 

 fruits of the wild tree; but I also found one or two large calabashes 

 six or seven inches across, doubtless the fruit of the cultivated tree. 

 With both species the stranded gourds were much weathered and often 

 cracked ; and all that were examined contained the usual dried-up, 

 blackened, loose mass of pulp and dead seeds. A good proportion, 

 however, had entire shells (perhaps half of them), and could have 

 continued their ocean traverse. 



Since the plants do not grow in the Turks Islands, which derive 

 their foreign beach-drift from the islands to the southward and 

 eastward, we have here the completion of the first stage in crossing 

 the Atlantic. It is highly probable that some of these floating 

 gourds, more especially those of C. cujete, are included at times 

 amongst the West Indian drift stranded on the shores of Europe. 

 But their seeds would be always dead ; and it could be only in local 

 distribution, as in inter-island dispersal, that currents could aid in 

 the spread of the species. The occasional presence of a solitary 



