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APPENDIX 



last Madeiran plant. Yet Lowe in his Manual of the Madeiran 

 flora (1857) includes it amongst the very rare indigenous plants. 

 In the Cape Verde Islands it was recorded only from St. Antonio, 

 but as a cultivated plant, by Schmidt in the middle of last century 

 (Flora der Cap Verdischen Inseln, 1852). However, Hemsley in 

 Science Progress for 1894 (Vol. II.) states that it is still said to exist 

 here and there in the mountains of St. Antonio and St. Nicolas. 

 But it is not named by Prof. Coutinho in the list of the plants 

 of the islands in his Catalogas Herbarii Gorgonei Universitatis 

 Olisiponensis, Lisbon, 1914-15. It may be added that although 

 the tree is not a native of the Azores, it is to be occasionally observed 

 in gardens as on Pico and on San Miguel. 



In addition to the numerous solitary specimens of the Dragon- 

 tree planted in and near towns on Teneriffe, I came upon it in 1906 

 growing wild on the Taganana coast near the north-east extremity 

 of the island. Here in the company of the cactoid Euphorbia (E. 

 canariensis) it grows on the faces of rocky declivities in inaccessible 

 parts of the precipitous slopes of the Roque de las Animas, a pinnacle 

 mountain rising 1400 or 1500 feet above the sea. Though growing 

 singly, there were several trees scattered about on the mountain-side 

 in situations suggestive of dispersal of the seeds by birds. Its station 

 may be compared with that of the Hawaiian Dracaena aurea, which 

 is not uncommon in the open wooded districts up to 3000 feet, but 

 grows in a variety of situations. Thus, I found it once in the broken- 

 down caverns of an old lava-flow frequented by pigeons that doubtless 

 brought the seeds. 



Hillebrand gives no affinities for the Hawaiian species; but Sir 

 Joseph Hooker has some very suggestive reflections on Dracaena 

 draco in one of the appendices of his book on Marocco and the Great 

 Atlas, where the Canarian flora is discussed (pp. 410, 417). It has, 

 he says, " only one near ally, D. ombet, which is confined to Abyssinia, 

 Southern Arabia, and the intervening island of Socotra." He suggests 

 the hypothesis that at a very remote period this Draccena, together 

 with the tropical trees of Myrsinece, Laurineae, etc., that belong to 

 the Canarian flora, flourished in the area included in North-west 

 Africa and its adjacent islands, and that they have been expelled 

 from the continent by altered conditions of climate. In this connec- 

 tion he also links with the Draccena the Sapotaceoe of Madeira and 

 the Cape Verde Islands, plants that in the islands of the Pacific and 

 elsewhere raise much the same issues. This explanation seems very 

 probable as concerning Draccena draco, but it could not be applied 

 to the Hawaiian plant. 



Let us look for a moment at the modes of dispersal possessed by 

 Dracaenas generally. Though in the cases of the Canarian and 

 Hawaiian species the seeds even after prolonged drying possess no 

 buoj^ancy, being in this respect doubtless typical of the genus, 

 the berries would readily attract birds. The seeds of Dracaenas 

 are indeed well fitted for withstanding a transport in a bird's stomach, 

 the small embryo being protected by a very tough albumen. But 

 whether they could be thus carried unharmed across the 3000 to 

 4000 miles of ocean that intervene between the eastern borders of Asia 



