OF THE MALDIVB ISLANDS. 
1*25 
Miladumadulu Afoli. 
Only two islands on the west side of this atoll are at 
present inhabited, while most of the outer western line of 
islands have people on them or are regularly visited. The 
western islands are generally covered with low trees and 
shrubs, while the eastern islands have large cocoanuts and a 
few banyans. The greater part of the eastern islands has at 
times been cultivated, but very many have large lakes 
(kuli, M. ; kulam, T.) in the centre, surrounded by a thin 
fringe of mangroves, of which the natives distinguish three 
kinds according to their edible properties, Bruguiera caryo- 
phylloides being the most numerous. 
Formerly these islands were nearly self-contained, all 
growing grain, yams, sweet potatoes, plantains, pumpkins, 
and Colocasia ; arrowroot (Tacca) is very plentiful. The 
people seem to have been very industrious, and all the 
twenty -eight islands we visited seem to have been at some 
time cultivated. Compared with Mahlos Atoll, many of the 
islands exhibit almost as luxuriant a vegetation as Limbo 
Kandu, and surpass all the other islands of that atoll. Trees 
and shrubs are nearly the same, but Pandani, bread-fruit, and 
Galophyllum Inophyllum are dominant ; herbaceous plants 
exhibit little variety in any one island. By the mosques 
sweet-smelling plants are much grown, poor varieties of the 
rose being dominant. 
The stony eastern area of all these islands is generally 
covered with cocoanuts, which prefer such a situation. The 
intermediate vegetation consists of Pandani, Galophyllum 
Inophyllum, Hernandia peltata, and Hibiscus tiliaceus, all 
useful economic products. 
Mahagudu and Landu are particularly noted for their 
great variety of economic plants ; in the latter, in addition to 
the above, the areca palm, betel, sugarcane, maize, sour- 
sop, water melons, limes, lemons, chillies, Sonneratia acida, 
and bamboos being all grown in some numbers. 
