CHAPTER VIII 



MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 



In this chapter numerous other West Indian littoral plants, which 

 are not dealt with in the preceding chapter, are discussed from the 

 standpoint of dispersal. The object has been to treat in this manner 

 all the plants mentioned in the table given in Chapter IV., in which 

 the relation existing among West Indian littoral plants between 

 their distribution outside the New World and their capacity for 

 dispersal by currents is illustrated. The small- seeded shore plants, 

 which raise other considerations, are dealt with in Note 21 of the 

 Appendix. 



Acacia farnesiana, Willd. 



This plant came under my notice in different parts of the tropics, 

 and I made a special study of its station and modes of dispersal in 

 Hawaii and Jamaica. One may begin the discussion of this widely 

 spread small tree or shrub with remarking that there is some diverg- 

 ence of opinion as to its distribution as an indigenous plant. De 

 Candolle in his Geographie Botanique (pp. 770, 792) viewed it as of 

 American origin and as naturalised in Asia and Africa. Bentham 

 observed that, whilst it was difficult to determine where it was 

 indigenous, it had the appearance of being so in Western America 

 from Texas to Northern Chile, in tropical South Africa, and in 

 Northern Australia, but not in India (Trans. Linn. Soc. XXX., 502). 

 Baron von Mueller speaks of it as native of Southern Asia and the 

 warm parts of Australia, and as growing spontaneously in tropical 

 and subtropical America (Select Extra-Tropical Plants, 1880). The 

 general opinion, however, leans towards an American origin; but 

 at present we will accept three facts concerned with its distribution, 

 as stated by Bentham : (a) that it is widely spread over the tropical 

 and subtropical regions of the New and the Old World; (b) that it 

 has been generally cultivated for the perfume of its flowers; and 

 (c) that it has been frequently established as an escape from cultiva- 

 tion. Further consideration of the matter may throw light on the 

 plant's origin, but since we are dealing with a favourite tropical 

 cultivated plant which also grows wild in nearly all warm countries 

 (Hemsley, Bot. Chall. Exped., IV., 148), the initial difficulties are 

 apparent. It is, however, possible that we may obtain some clue 

 by regarding the outposts of its distribution, as in the case of its 

 occurrence on oceanic islands. 



Let us commence with the islands of the Pacific. Wherever this 



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