246 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



work on the Pacific, I will go briefly over the ground there traversed 

 as regards its distribution and modes of dispersal, supplementing 

 my remarks with additional observations and reflections and directing 

 them towards the elucidation of the problem connected with the 

 intervention of man. It resembles Hibiscus tiliaceus closely in its 

 general distribution, accompanying it as a common seashore tree 

 throughout the archipelagos of the tropical Pacific, in North Australia, 

 in Indo-Malaya, in the islands of the Indian Ocean, on both coasts 

 of Africa, and in the West Indies ; but, as far as I know, only Hibiscus 

 tiliaceus has been recorded from the Pacific coasts of America, 

 though it is very probable that Thespesia populnea also grows there. 



The testimony of botanists in the Pacific islands as to its claim 

 to be indigenous, that is to say, to have existed there at the time of 

 their discovery in the eighteenth century is practically unanimous. 

 It was found during Cook's voyages by Banks and Solander in the 

 Society Islands and by Forster in Easter Island (Seemann, p. 18) ; 

 whilst Hillebrand, the authority for the Hawaiian Islands, places it 

 with the plants that were introduced by the natives in prehistoric 

 times. Hemsley, Burkill, and Reinecke in the case of the Tongan 

 and Samoan floras, Cheeseman as concerning Rarotonga, and 

 Seemann in respect of Fiji, include the tree amongst the indigenous 

 plants without any comment. 



If as Hillebrand claims, and his opinion is always weighty, the 

 Polynesians have carried these seeds about with them during their 

 oceanic migrations, what, we may ask, were the inducements for them 

 to do so ? Though like Hibiscus tiliaceus the tree yields bast fibres 

 which are used for cordage in other parts of the world, it does not 

 seem, according to Cheeseman, Hillebrand, Reinecke, Seemann, 

 etc., that the Polynesians and Fijians utilised it for this purpose. 

 In fact, it was for the durability and hardness of its timber that the 

 Fijians, Rarotongans, and Samoans chiefly prized it. Hillebrand, 

 however, finds sufficient explanation of its wide distribution in the 

 Pacific in the veneration paid by the Tahitians and other islanders 

 to the tree. 



I am inclined to consider that the Pacific islanders may have 

 assisted in the distribution of this tree, but not to the extent in which 

 they aided the dispersal of its frequent associate on the seashore, 

 Hibiscus tiliaceus. But whatever was accomplished in this direction 

 by man was probably carried out ages ago. Oliver, in his Flora 

 of Tropical Africa (1868-77), considered it as probably distributed 

 through cultivation. It is worth noting that another species of 

 the genus, Thespesia danis, from east tropical Africa was held sacred 

 in the Galla country (Hooker's Icon. Plant., ser. iii., Vol. IV.). Though 

 doubtless its presence on isolated oceanic islands in the Pacific is 

 usually due to currents, I am inclined to hold that in the case of 

 Easter Island, where it was found by Forster in 1773, during Cook's 

 second voyage, its existence should be attributed to man. 



We pass on to advocate the claims of the currents in explaining 

 the wide range of this coast tree. Hemsley, though regarding it as 

 introduced into the New World, ascribes to currents a share in its 

 distribution (Chall. Bot., L, 42; IV., 125, 235). My first experiment 



