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WILLIS AND GARDINER : BOT AN 
papaw (falo and veofaio), Barringtonia speciosa, and various 
kinds of Pandanus (Karikeo, Bokeo, Medu Mokaneo), with 
various herbs used in curries. The whole of the south of 
the island is being very rapidly washed away by the sea, 
and there is a long point extending outwards, covered with 
Pemphis acidula, the stems of which are washed for two or 
three feet at high tide, and are very slowly being killed ; 
considerable changes took place here two years and five 
months before I visited the island, since when the natives 
say that they cannot see any further change. 
Hedufuri, in S. Mahlos, is likewise a small thickly inha- 
bited very dry sandy islet. The village is situated on the 
east side, and behind it is a small clump of cocoanuts, bread- 
fruit, &c. The rest of the island is very dry, sandy, covered 
with a low growth of Scævola, Ochrosia, Tournefortia, and 
small Pandanus, with grassy patches here and there. 
Morinda citrifolia is very abundant, being to some extent 
planted by the people for the root, from which a permanent 
red dye for cloth is obtained by mixing a decoction with 
lime.'*^ The flora of this island numbers 46 species other 
than cultivated forms. 
The islets along the south side of Mahlos Atoll may be 
divided by the vegetation at a glance into sandy and stony 
islets, or, if mixed, the two parts can be separated. 
The sandy islets have, as a rule, a few semi-dwarfed cocoa- 
nuts and bread-fruit trees in the centre, surrounded by such 
low bushes as were mentioned underHeduf uri,with Scævola 
beaches. 
The rocky islets, on the other hand, are covered with dense 
tall jungle of cocoanuts, large Pandani, Calophyllum, Bar- 
ringtonia, with often a clump of banyans, and have Pemphis 
beaches. 
* Probably some of the other plants were introduced as dyes and have 
now run wild. The whole population is engaged in cloth-making. The 
black thread is now imported as such, but was formerly dyed, the colour 
being obtained from the sap of the plantain. The collection from this 
island is fairly complete. 
