MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 



237 



SOPHOEA TOMENTOSA, L. 



This littoral shrub, which ranges over the warm parts of the globe, 

 is discussed at length in my book on Plant Dispersal. My remarks 

 here will be accordingly restricted to some supplementary observa- 

 tions made in the West Indian region. Though widely distributed 

 in the West Indies and extending to South Florida and Bermuda 

 and along the Caribbean shores of Central America to Brazil, it does 

 not appear to be of frequent occurrence. Whilst typically at home 

 on a sandy beach, it may also grow on rocky shores, as occasionally 

 happens in Jamaica and, according to Harshberger's work (p. 674), 

 also in Cuba. 



The plant came under my notice more particularly on the north 

 coast of Jamaica, in the Turks Islands, and on the Colon beaches. 

 In the Turks Group it only came under observation in one island, 

 namely, on Grand Turk; and there it was frequent in the interior 

 of the low, sandy southern third of the island, where it grew in the 

 company of Coccoloba uvifera, Dodoncea viscosa, and other plants, 

 but was never observed amongst the vegetation immediately border- 

 ing the beach. The beach conditions are, however, reproduced in 

 the plains of the interior, where the plant thrives at distances never 

 exceeding half a mile from the beach. It appears to have a difficulty 

 in establishing itself on low, sandy islets in these seas on which many 

 characteristic shore shrubs find a home. Thus, Mr. Lansing did not 

 record it on the Florida sand-keys, of the vegetation of which he 

 made a most methodical investigation. As illustrating its transient 

 sojourn on small isolated island groups one may refer to a note on 

 this subject by Mr. Savage English in the Kew Bulletin for 1913. 

 He refers to a solitary specimen on the shore of Grand Cayman which 

 was washed away in the hurricane of 1912. 



In the district of St. Anne's on the north side of Jamaica I had 

 an opportunity of observing the influence of an inland station on the 

 buoyancy and size of the seeds. The seeds of the strand plant, as 

 is shown in my previous work, are able to float in sea-water un- 

 harmed for several months, and even after twelve months' immersion. 

 It is also established in its pages that with the seeds or fruits of 

 typical beach plants like Ipomcea pes-caprce, Scazvola Koenigii, etc., 

 the buoyant capacity is as a rule maintained when the plants have 

 extended inland several miles from the coast. This conclusion is 

 generally supported by the behaviour of Sophora tomentosa in 

 Jamaica; but at the same time it was elicited that although the 

 seeds of the inland plants floated in sea- water as long as those of the 

 beach plants they did not do so in the same proportion, a greater 

 number of them sinking during the experiment — a result, however, 

 that is to be connected with the moister climatic conditions of the 

 inland station. 



I found the plants well established at the roadside and on the hill- 

 slopes just below " Sussex," which lies at the back of St. Anne's 

 about two miles inland and about 700 feet above the sea. Their 

 seeds were compared with those of shore plants growing at the 

 St. Anne's coast on Priory Islet. The estate known as " Sussex " 



