542 



KEELING ISLAND. 



April, 1836. 



In Holman^s* Travels, an account is given on the autho- 

 rity of Mr. A. S. Keating, who resided twelve months on 

 these islands, of the various seeds, and other bodies, which 

 have been known to have been washed on shore. Seeds 

 and plants from Sumatra and Java have been driven up by 

 the surf on the windward side of the islands. Among them 

 have been found the Kimiri, native of Sumatra and the 

 peninsula of Malacca ; the cocoa-nut of Balci, known by its 

 shape and size ; the Dadass, which is planted by the Malays 

 with the pepper-vine, the latter intwining round its trunk, 

 and supporting itself by the prickles on its stem ; the soap- 

 tree ; the castor-oil plant ; trunks of the sago palm ; and 

 various kinds of seeds unknown to the Malays who settled 

 on the islands. These are all supposed to have been driven 

 on shore by the N.W. monsoon to the coast of New 

 Holland, and thence to these islands by the S.E. trade- 

 wind. Large masses of Java teak, and yellow wood, have 

 also been found, besides immense trees, of red and white 

 cedar, and the blue gum-wood of New Holland, in a per- 

 fectly sound condition. All the hardy seeds, such as 

 creepers, retain their germinating power, but the softer 

 kinds, among which is the mangostin, are destroyed in the 

 passage. Fishing-canoes, apparently from Java, have at 

 times been washed on shore/^ It is interesting thus to 

 discover how numerous the seeds are, which, coming from 

 several countries, are drifted over the wide ocean. Pro- 

 fessor Henslow tells m.e, he believes that nearly all the 

 plants which I brought from this island, are common littoral 

 species in the East Indian archipelago. From the direction, 

 however, of the winds and currents, it seems scarcely 

 possible that they can have come here in a direct line. If, as 

 suggested with much probability by Mr. Keating, they have 

 first been carried towards the coast of New Holland, and 

 thence drifted back again, together with the productions of 



* Holman's Travels, vol. iv., p. 378. 



