MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 



251 



Texas to Peru and Chile on the Pacific side and as far south as Buenos 

 Ayres on the Atlantic side ; and in the Old World, as we learn also 

 from Hemsley (Bot. Chall. Exped., II., 29) as well as from Oliver 

 (Flora of Tropical Africa, II., 206), it is found on both coasts of Africa 

 and in Australia. It is widely dispersed in the West Indies. Grise- 

 bach gives Jamaica, Antigua, Dominica, and St. Vincent as its 

 homes. Millspaugh (Plant. Utow., I., 53) gives Porto Rico, Jamaica 

 (Port Antonio), and the Cayman Islands. In Jamaica I noticed it 

 at Port Antonio, St. Anne's Bay, and at Black River. It is not 



Tabulated Results of the Comparison op Tournefortia gnafhalodes, R. Br., 



AND T OVRNEFORTIA ARGENTEA, Linn. f. 





Tournefortia gnaphalodes 



Tournefortia argentea 



Main facts of 

 distribution. 



American shores of the 

 tropical and subtropical At- 

 lantic, including the West 

 Indies, South Florida, and the 

 Bermudas. 



Tropical, continental, and in- 

 sular shores of the Indian and 

 Pacific Oceans, excluding the 

 Pacific coast of America ; also 

 on coast of tropical West 

 Africa. 



Fruit-characters. 



Dry drupaceous fruit, about 

 7 mm., separating into two 

 hemispherical pyrenes, each 

 pyrene displaying a small 

 two -celled stone (a seed in 

 each cell) imbedded in a cork- 

 like exocarp. 



Similar to the other species, 

 except that the fruit is rather 

 smaller. 



Buoyancy of 

 fruits in sea -water. 



Float for months with seeds 

 unharmed, none of them sink- 

 ing. 



Float for months without 

 injury to the seed, none of 

 them sinking. 



Cause of the 

 floating capacity. 



The buoyancy is due to the 

 cork-like exocarp, the stone 

 having no independent float- 

 ing power. 



The same as with the other 

 species. 



Probable home 

 of the species be- 

 fore buoyancy was 

 acquired. 



In the tropics of the New 

 World. 



In the tropics of the Old 

 World. 



Subsidiary dis- 

 persal agencies. 



Birds, drift-wood and pum- 

 ice. 



Birds, drift-wood and pum- 

 ice. 



mentioned in Hart's " Herbarium List " for Trinidad ; but I found it 

 on the south coast of that island. It is also included in the Bermudian 

 flora. 



Hemsley says that it frequents brackish marshes on the seashore, 

 and Grisebach states that it is common in Jamaica in this station. 

 At Port Antonio I found it thriving in wet places on the beach. 

 At St. Anne's Bay it grew on the beach ; and at Black River it was 

 scrambling over the reeds and other vegetation within the mouth 

 of the estuary. On Porto Rico, Millspaugh described it as " rising 

 free among high reeds and grasses " (Ibid.). In Trinidad I found 



