132 
WILLIS AND GARDINER : BOTANY 
yield useful products. All the plants of the former class are 
printed in capitals in the list of the flora. Some plants, such 
as the cocoanut, though now cultivated, have probably been 
introduced by natural agencies. Many of the cultivated 
plants in the list have without doubt been introduced quite 
recently by Ibrahim Didi and others, and are as yet hardly 
to be found in the outlying islands. There has been a 
marked increase in the successful acclimatization of food 
and other plants in the last twenty years. This is largely 
due to Ibrahim Didi, Dorimenokiligefanu, late Chief Vizier, 
to whom the people owe a very great debt in this respect. 
The Sultans, too, have taken more interest in the matter, and 
the nobles at Male at present vie with one another in 
the rare (^.e., with regard to the Maldives) plants and shrubs 
growing in their compounds. 
The effect of the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 has not 
been sufficiently emphasized. Before then the islands had 
no pumice, and it was not possible to grow a large number of 
the food plants in many of the islands. Now plantains, 
&c., grow almost anywhere, a basket of pumice being placed 
around the roots of each. 
The certainly introduced and cultivated plants of the 
Maldives in the list above given number (including doubtful 
identifications) 98, belonging to 73 genera and 33 families. 
Sixty-one genera and 12 families are represented by culti- 
vated plants only. 
We may classify the economic products into groups as 
follows, using the classification of the “ Indian Agricultural 
Ledger ” - 
Group I.— Gums^ Resins, &c. 
There are several trees in the flora which are elsewhere 
used for the source of gums and resins, but we have no 
record of any being used by the Maldivians. Such are 
Azadirachta, Acacia Farnesiana, Bread-fruit, Mango, Moringa. 
The saps of bread-fruit, mangrove, and Barri ngtonia are 
