150 
WILLIS AND GARDINER : BOTANY 
SO that its actual immediate source can hardly be determined; 
the second occurring in the Malayan region and Ceylon, but 
not in the African Islands, and turning up also in Minikoi ; 
while the third occurs in the Malay Peninsula, Ceylon, and 
East Africa, though not in the African Islands. In the 
Central and Northern Maldives, though apparently not in 
the Southern, we find Canavalia lineata (Malaya, African 
Islands, Ceylon) and Gloriosa superba (Malaya, Eastern 
Africa, Ceylon). The whole group of Maldives contains four 
species, or including the Chagos, Laccadives, and Minikoi, 
seven species not found in Ceylon, but all of which occur 
in the African Islands and the Malayan region, viz., Cana- 
valia turgida, Vigna lutea, Cæsalpinia Bonducella, Afzelia 
bijuga. Acacia Farnesiana (planted in Ceylon), Terminalia 
Catappa (ditto), and Hernandia ovigera (? Malayan). 
We shall therefore probably not be far wrong if we assume 
that the littoral sea-borne fiora of the Chagos-Maldive- 
Laccadive Archipelago is chiefly Malayan in composition, 
partly derived directly by the currents in the north-east 
monsoon, partly indirectly by the currents in the same mon- 
soon (aided by the wind) from Ceylon or Southern India, 
and partly by the currents and wind in the south-west 
monsoon from the Seychelles, from which or from other 
parts of the Arabian Sea the few non-Malayan forms, such 
as Launæa pinnatifida, have been obtained. The main track 
of the transporting agencies leads through the Southern 
Maldives, which have in consequence the richest flora, 
while the flora of the Laccadives is comparatively poor, in 
fact poorer in these widespread forms than that of the 
Malabar Coast. As this point may be raised as an objection, 
let us briefly consider the Malabar flora. Thirty of the 43 
enumerated species occur in it, against 22 in the Laccadives 
and 29 on the Coromandel Coast. The two Malabar plants 
not known to occur on the latter are Ipomœa grandiflora and 
Euphorbia Atoto, both found in the Laccadives and Ceylon, 
and possibly carried from the former to the Indian Coast 
