124 
WILLIS AND GARDINER : BOTANY 
in the northern atolls struggling with and maintaining their 
position against the grass. 
The islands to the south of Huludu have the usual trees 
and shrubs characteristic of rocky and sandy areas. Some 
are planted with cocoanuts. Most are very barren, the 
arrowroot (Tacca) being almost the only herbaceous plant 
found besides the grasses. Convolvulus and other creeping 
and climbing plants are practically non-existent on the shores 
of either side. Scævola and Tournefortia do not dominate 
any part. Pemphis grows against the sea, and has been 
planted in lines across the kuli. For the rest it is an open 
jungle of small Pandani and the usual shrubs, with the 
addition of Gyrocarpus .Jacquini, Morinda citrifolia, and 
Thespesia populnea. The absence of mangroves from so 
suitable an area is most remarkable, it seems. to me. 
Maradu, one of the central islands of the west side, has 
perhaps an even more luxuriant vegetation than either Midu 
or Huludu. It is more dank and moist, pools of water 
standing everywhere. The village is shaded with immense 
bread-fruit trees, and every house has its trellis work of 
cucumbers, gourds, and pumpkins ; water melons grow 
everywhere. Indeed, practically every vegetable which is 
at all extensively grown in the group flourishes here, the 
brinjals being as good as those of Ceylon. Behind the 
village is a dense tall jungle of cocoanuts, arecas, Calo- 
phyllum, Terminalia Catappa, Cordia subcordata struggling 
with an undergrowth of limes, Zizyphus Jujuba, and many 
other wild and semi-wild trees. The soursop, pomegranate, 
Sonneratia, and betel grow without being cultivated, and 
there are even said to be a few orange trees. Coarse grass 
covers the untilled ground everywhere, save in the densest 
shade. Herbaceous weeds are rare ; almost the only flowers 
are the Rhœo discolor and the Pancratium zeylanicum. 
There was one single immense Barringtonia speciosa, but 
I do not remember to have seen a single banyan tree in Addu, 
and I think it is not found. 
