MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 



193 



and lastly there is the cosmopolitan species we have been discussing. 

 Fawcett and Rendle, from whose work on the flora of Jamaica these 

 facts of distribution are taken, follow Bentham in regarding Cassytha 

 filiformis and C. americana as one species. The parallel between 

 Cassytha and Sccevola becomes still closer when we reflect that the 

 only species recorded from the New World is in each case the only 

 species that is common to the western and eastern hemispheres, 

 namely, C. filiformis and Sc. plumieri. A somewhat similar parallel 

 is offered by Dodoncea, another Australian genus, which is dealt 

 with under the head of D. viscosa. 



In their suitability for being dispersed by frugivorous birds there 

 is another point of resemblance between the genera Cassytha and 

 Sccevola. In neither genus, however, could we often appeal to this 

 agency for trans-oceanic dispersal. In this respect I have somewhat 

 changed the point of view adopted in my previous work (p. 71). 



Chrysobalanus icaco, L. (Coco Plum) 



This shrub has a special interest, because it is not only widely 

 distributed in the tropics of the New World but also grows in West 

 Africa. It has an edible fruit, and its occurrence on the opposite 

 sides of the Atlantic raises much the same questions that are raised 

 by the Hog Plum, Spondias lutea, which has the same distribution. 

 Both have the reputation of possessing edible fruits, which, however, are 

 not very palatable in the raw state except to animals. With both 

 there is a suspicion that the aborigines may have aided their dispersal, 

 and in both the agency of the currents has been invoked. The 

 efficacy of the last agency is more assured in the case of the Hog 

 Plum, which is discussed at length in Chapter VI. ; but for the Coco 

 Plum the ground is not so certain, as is explained below. However, 

 it should be remarked that two eminent botanists, De Candolle and 

 Hemsley, basing their inference on general considerations, regard 

 the plant as dispersed by the currents, though the first named 

 looks upon the interference of man as equally probable (Geographie 

 Botanique, pp. 784, 792; Chall. Bot, L, 43; IV., 279). 



From the data given by various authorities it is apparent that 

 Chrysobalanus icaco ranges in the New World from South Florida 

 and the Bahamas through the West Indian region to Trinidad, and 

 from Mexico through Central America by way of Venezuela to Brazil. 

 It evidently grows on all the larger West Indian islands and on most 

 of the Lesser Antilles. In the New World the species may be viewed 

 as possessing two forms, an inland form restricted to that hemisphere 

 and a coast form found also in tropical West Africa. The inland plant, 

 originally differentiated as C. pellocarpus, Mey., frequents moist 

 woods; whilst the coast plant is a typical shrub of the vegetation 

 lining the beach. (I have here followed Fawcett and Rendle in 

 their union of the two species in their Jamaican flora. This was the 

 view of De Candolle, and the exigencies of distribution long since 

 compelled me to support his opinion.) 



We must therefore expect to find very different stations assigned 

 to this shrub. This is illustrated in Jamaica, where, according to 



