OF THE MALDIVE ISLANDS. 
155 
of man, we find in the Chagos a great proportion of wind- 
borne species (53’84-28*95)," a deficiency of bird-carried 
species (17‘85-28*95), and an average of sea-borne. The Mal- 
dives have a large preponderance of sea-borne species, a 
deficiency of the others. Minikoi has a considerable excess 
of sea-borne, a deficiency of otherwise carried forms. The 
Laccadives show a slight deficiency in sea transport, and a 
preponderance in bird. The total evidence thus shows as 
before that the sea is the chief agent, after the unintentional 
action of man, in stocking outlying oceanic islands, and the 
more so the farther out they lie, or the more (as in the case 
of the Maldives) they lie in the track of the great equatorial 
current systems. Bird carriage is chiefly important in islands 
nearest to the mainland, while wind is operative every- 
where, but especially nearer to mainlands and in the carriage 
of cryptogams. Unintentional introductions by man are 
more numerous the nearer to the ports of commerce. 
VIL--THE ORDER OF APPEARANCE AND 
THE COMPETITION OF PLANTS ON 
NEW ISLANDS, 
Very little has been described as to the first plants to 
people a new island beyond the noting of certain species 
actually observed growing on newly formed beaches, e.g., 
by Darwin, Guppy, and others (see Hemsley, l.c.), Darwin 
notes that Pemphis is very often among the first to appear. 
Guppy notes that on the windward or growing side of a 
reef there is a scanty vegetation with few trees, Casuarina, 
Pandanus, &c. On the leeward, older side, where there is 
a richer soil with more humus, there is a denser vegetation, 
the trees forming a thick belt overhanging the rising 
tide ; common among them are Barringtonia speciosa, Calo- 
phyllum Inophyllum, Thespesia populnea. Hibiscus tilia- 
ceus, &c. Just within the line of trees bordering the beach 
* It must, however, be remembered that the equatorial climate of the 
Chagos is especially favourable to ferus, which form the majority of the 
plants under this head. 
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