142 
WILLIS AND GAB DINER : BOTANY 
wind may travel in the necessary direction 250 or more 
miles in the day ; (ii.) that there is no evidence to show that 
this method of transport has certainly carried plants over 
wider distances than 400 miles and probably even 350 ; 
(iii.) that when once introduced by any means, plants with 
fleshy fruits may very probably be largely distributed 
among the islands by birds, many of the fleshy-fruited 
species above mentioned being very widely scattered among 
the islands. 
Pass on now to the carriage of seeds attached by claws 
or hooks to the feathers of birds. The evidence -that this 
carriage ever takes place in nature is small, but there are 
a few known probable cases. In the flora above enumerated, 
the following are possibilities : — 
Sida carpinifolia 
(Urena sinuata) 
Desmodium triflorum 
Adenostemma viscosum 
(Bidens pilosa) 
(Plumbago zeylanica) 
Boerhaavia diffusa 
Pisonia aculeata 
morindæfolia 
Achyranthes aspera 
Any or all of these may obviously just as likely have been 
introduced by man, attached to clothing or other articles. 
Taking the list for what it is worth, we find that Sida and the 
Pisoniæ occur in the Maldives only, Bidens, Urena, and 
Plumbago in the nearer Laccadives, and the others through 
both groups. Boerhaavia and Pisonia are very probably sea- 
borne. So far as this evidence goes, therefore, it shows the 
same results as that of the dropped seeds. 
Now, take the case of the plants with seeds or fruits so 
small that they may be carried in mud pellets attached to 
the feet of birds. This evidently applies mainly to the plants 
of wet places with muddy ground, not so much to sandy soil. 
We thus get the following list : — 
Portulaea oleraceaa 
quadrifida 
tuberosa 
(Ammannia baccifera) 
-Sesuvium-Portulacastrum 
Eelipta alba 
Wedelia calendulacea 
Herpestis Monniera 
(Striga lutea) 
Lippia nodiflora 
(Polygonum barbatum) 
■Euphorbia piluliferaj 
