The Botany of the Maidive Islands. 
BY 
J. C. WILLIS 
AND 
J. STANLEY GARDINER 
{Balfour Student of the University of Cambridge). 
(With Plate II.) 
CONTENTS. 
I. —Introductory . 
II.~The Flora of the Maldives, Laccadives, and Chagos. 
III. — Notes on the Vegetation of the various Atolls. 
IV. — The Maldivian Names of Plants. 
V. — The Economic Products of the Maldives. 
VI. — The Origin of the Flora. 
VII. — The Order of Appearance and the Competition of Plants on 
New Islands. 
VIII. — The Floras of Oceanic Islands. 
IX. — General Summary. 
L—INTROD UGTOB Y. 
O UR knowledge of the Flora of this interesting group of 
islands has hitherto been extremely limited. Although 
tributary to Ceylon, the Maldives lie in an unfrequented 
part of the Indian Ocean, and have but little communication 
with the outer world. They were visited by Ibn Batuta in 
1343-44, Pyrard de Laval spent the years 1602-07 upon the 
islands, and has left an account of their general features and 
condition, but his descriptions of the vegetation are confined 
to the cultivated or useful plants, and are very fragmentary, 
[Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Vol. 1., Pt. II., December, 1901.] 
