Note on the Flora of Minikoi. 
BY 
J. C. WILLIS. 
“TN his ‘‘ Botany of the Laccadives,”* to which Minikoi 
^ politically belongs, though it is nearer to the Maldives 
and has a Maldivian population, Dr. Prain enumerates the 
plants hitherto known to grow wild or to be cultivated on 
this island. The total number is 113. During the south-west 
monsoon of 1899 the island was visited by Mr. J. Stanley 
Gardiner, in the course of his work on Coral Islands.! A col- 
lection of fifty-three plants was made by him, and has since 
been worked out in the herbarium at Peradeniya by Mr. W. 
de Alwis and myself ; for determinations of two or three 
doubtful specimens I am indebted to Dr. Prain. Sixteen new 
plants are thus added to the list, raising the total to 129, and 
there are also 5 others with doubtful names, but certainly 
other spetîies. The total is therefore 134. The island of 
Minikoi lies in the route between Colombo and Aden, in 
latitude 8*15° N. and in longitude 73° E. Upon the island 
is a large lighthouse, during the building of which there 
was constant communication with Ceylon, which will ac- 
count for many of the introduced weeds. The island is a 
very typical coral atoll island, and is about 6 miles long. 
* Prain ; Botany of the Laccadives, Journ. Bombay N. H. Soc., VII., VIII., 
1893. 
t Gardiner : The Atoll of Minikoi, Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., XI., 1900, p. 22 
Idem, The Fauna and Geography of the Maldives and Laccadives. Cam* 
bridge, 1901 (in progress). 
Annals of tlie Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Vol. I., Pt. II., December, ItOl.j 
