204 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



power, except the spongy tissue. A number of the achenes were 

 placed in sea- water in Jamaica, and after two months they all floated 

 buoyantly and contained in some cases sound seeds. Evidently 

 they could float for a long period, and could certainly be carried by 

 the Equatorial Current across the Atlantic from West Africa to 

 Brazil. 



But there is an important point to notice in this connection. 

 Although the plant fruits abundantly it oftens matures scarcely 

 any seed. One may examine a number of the achenes and find neither 

 seed nor stone, or at all events only in a few cases, as in a sample 

 from the Turks Islands, where only 3 or 4 per cent, contained a seed. 

 This was remarked by Schimper (p. 171), and he quotes Bentham 

 and Hooker to the effect that this is a frequent phenomenon. But 

 I should imagine that it rarely happens that one meets with the 

 experience of Schimper, who found every fruit examined to be seed- 

 less. Thus, whilst writing these lines, I have examined a sample 

 of fruits from Jamaica, and find about 10 per cent, seeded. As a 

 set-off against this defect in seeding one must place the abundant 

 fruiting of the plant. Taking the average number of fruit-heads on 

 a panicle at fifteen, and the average number of achenes per head 

 at thirty-three or thirty-four, then each panicle would contain 500 

 achenes and, taking the proportion of seeded fruits at 4 per cent., 

 twenty seeds. Each small tree must develop a large number of 

 these panicles in a season. Suppose we place them at fifty, which 

 is probably below rather than above the average, then each plant 

 would mature a thousand seeds, which I imagine would be as many 

 as an ordinary Terminalia tree would mature in a single season. 



Schimper undoubtedly regarded this plant as dispersed by the 

 currents, and the same position was taken by Hemsley in his discus- 

 sion of the Bermudian flora (Chall. Bot., L, 48). Millspaugh, however, 

 in his paper on the Florida sand-keys, regarded it as probably distri- 

 buted by birds. I think, however, that a good case has been made 

 for the currents. It may be noted in conclusion that there is every 

 reason for believing that it is truly indigenous, and that it reached 

 Bermuda with other West Indian plants characterised by Mills- 

 paugh as belonging to the association of the mangrove border. 

 Hemsley recognises this plant as probably one of the four that can 

 be identified from the description of Jourdan, who accompanied 

 the expedition of Sir George Sommers that was wrecked on the 

 Bermudas in 1609. It is noteworthy that three out of these four 

 early Bermudian plants, namely the Prickly Pear (Opuntia), the 

 Juniper (J. bermudiana), and the Palmito (Sabal blackburniana) had 

 evidently been established there through the agency of frugivorous 

 birds (Chall Bot., I., 49; II., 3). 



Crudya spicata, W. 



In its range the leguminous genus Crudya presents most of the 

 difficulties offered by Chrysobalanus (p. 193). Out of fourteen 

 known species all are American with the exception of one African 



