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WILLIS AND GARDINER : BOTANY 
extent to the Chagos, and also to Sumatra, whence it may 
spread a little into the Malay Archipelago. During the 
south-west monsoon the water north of this is also moving 
eastwards, and aided by the wind may carry the Seychelles 
plants to the Maldives and even to the south of Ceylon, 
whence the current flows round the Bay of Bengal to the 
Malay Peninsula and the Andamans. Other currents during 
this monsoon may carry the plants of the Seychelles by 
longer routes to the Laccadives and the Malabar Coast, and 
bring with them a few from the coasts of Africa and Arabia. 
On the change of the monsoon and the currents, the plants 
of the Malay Peninsula may be carried to the Coromandel 
Coast, Ceylon, and the Maldives and Laccadives, more 
reaching the more southerly islands through which the main 
stream goes. The same streams and winds may carry a few 
Ceylon and Indian and African forms to the Seychelles. 
We may therefore expect, on the whole, to find the 
following results after the lapse of a long period of time. 
The littoral sea-borne flora of the Seychelles will consist of 
a large number of the more southern Malayan forms, with 
a sprinkling of species from East Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, 
and India. Many of these will also reach Diego Garcia and 
the other islands of the Chagos group, whilst owing to the 
much greater intercepting area of the Maldives most of the 
Seychelles littoral flora will in all probability reach those 
islands during the south-west monsoon, which may also 
bring a few African or Arabian forms, and during the north- 
east monsoon many of the -northern Malayan forms will 
reach the east and south of Ceylonand the Maldives, Avhile a 
few Ceylon and south-west Indian forms may also be carried 
to the latter. The Maldives lying much more in the track 
of the currents and nearer to the sources of supply will 
have a richer flora than the Laccadives, so far as the littoral 
sea-borne plants are concerned, and also, when we consider 
the currents and the greater strength of the south-west 
monsoon, a richer flora than Ceylon in the Seychellan (i.e,. 
