MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 



181 



unharmed the long trans-oceanic passage of about two years from 

 the West Indian region in the Gulf Stream drift to the West Coast of 

 Africa. We are here presented, therefore, with a dilemma such as 

 was offered by Chrysobalanus icaco, one that could be evaded only 

 by postulating a common centre of dispersion in high northern 

 latitudes in a warmer geological age. This postulate seems the 

 more probable, since, as Dr. Safford informs me, Anona senegalensis, 

 a typical shrub or tree, that extends from the East to the West Coast 

 of Africa, is " apparently most closely related to certain species 

 growing on the plains of Southern Brazil and Paraguay " (letter 

 cited). 



A word may here be said on the synonymy of this species. Dr. 

 Safford conclusively shows (p. 14) that the two plants to which 

 Linnaeus originally applied the specific names of glabra and palustris 

 belong to one species. But it is possible that under the same specific 

 type may be also included Anona klainii, Pierre, of the West Coast 

 of Africa, which is at all events " very closely allied to A. palustris, 

 if not identical with it." Dr. Safford, whose work has here been 

 quoted (pp. 5, 15) tells me that the seeds of the two cannot be dis- 

 tinguished. I would point out that whilst on p. 15 this author 

 speaks of these two species as on the West Coast of Africa, he alludes 

 to them on p. 5 as on the eastern coast of the continent. That the 

 West Coast is the true habitat is, however, indicated in his letter to 

 me. Prof. Urban, as he shows, formed the same opinion of the 

 close affinity of the two forms. 



In conclusion, reference may be made to a curious abnormality 

 frequent in the seeds of another species of Anona (A. muricata). 

 Here the cotyledons are separated by a thin sheet or film of the 

 endosperm, about half a millimetre in thickness, which occupies 

 the length and breadth of the seed-kernel with the exception of a 

 deep notch in its base for the hypocotyl. It is best examined after 

 the embryo has begun to grow, and is about half the length of the 

 seed. 



Astro caryum 



Empty fruits of different species of this genus of palms were 

 identified at Kew amongst my beach-drift collections from the Pacific 

 and Atlantic sides of the Panama Isthmus. They were also included 

 among the Morris collection of Jamaican beach-drift (Chall. Bot., 

 IV., 304). I found them occasionally on the Trinidad coasts ; but 

 they did not come under my notice on the beaches of the Turks 

 Islands. However, since I came upon a typical specimen on the 

 coast of Pico in the Azores, it would seem likely that they would 

 reach the shores of Europe. The drift fruits are always empty. 

 They are rather like miniature coco-nuts, and are usually about 

 1J inch or 31 mm. in length. 



AVICENNIA NITIDA, Jacq. 



This mangrove is found all over the West Indies and along the 

 continental coasts and estuaries of the warm regions of the New 



