The Vegetation 
The earliest account of the vegetation of Gardner Island is 
found in Wilkes (1845) as follows: n The remainder of the reef which 
forms the island, is white coral sand, about three hundred feet wide, 
on which there is a vegetation that, unlike that of the other low 
islands of Polynesia is devoid of low shrubbery." According to this 
narrative the landing was made on the west side of the island and 
mention is made of Cocos forty to fifty feet high. This brief descrip¬ 
tion is clear except for the phrase "devoid of low shrubbery". In 
1964 the island was well covered with scrub growth and Cocos. It may 
be that the scrub fringe was lacking on the west side or that the 
island was swept by a storm previous to the visit of the Vincennes. 
According to Ellis ( 1936 ) Cocos were planted on the island in the l880 r s. 
Bryan (194-2) mentions the presence of Pisonia , Cordia , Tournefortia and 
Cocos . Daring the 1930 T s a plan was devised and implemented for the 
colonization of three islands in the Phoenix Group - Hull, Sydney and 
Gardner. This operation has been described by Maude (1952) and Laxton 
(1951). Maude mentions the presence of the following genera: Tourne¬ 
fortia, Seaevola, Morinda, Pisonia , Cordia , Lepturus , Sida and Sesuvium . 
In this report the soils of Gardner Island are compared to "the peat bogs 
of Washington Island" and mention is made of the use of Sesuvium as an 
emergency food. Reference is also made to giant buka trees (Pisonia ). 
Laxton states that when Maude surveyed Gardner Island in 1937 "the great 
buka trees were everywhere dominant and there were only a few hundred 
cocoanuts." This reporter goes on to mention that between 1938 and 194-0, 
8,000 Cocos had been planted, babai pits had been constructed for the 
coarse taro ( Alocasia indica ) brought from the Gilbert Islands and the 
following genera are enumerated: Cenchrus echinatus , Tournefortia , Cordia , 
Seaevola , and Sida . At the east end the buka trees rise "sixty feet" 
and on the northwest side-"fluted trunks of fifty feet high buka trees 
stand pillared, excluding undergrowth." Laxton also remarks: "While 
working on this area (NW side) we drove a twelve-foot road through the 
thick buka jungle, bringing down several sixty-foot giants,... . The 
changes made in the vegetation of Gardner Island and the later failure 
of the settlement scheme points up the importance of ecological studies 
on Pacific atolls. It is difficult to understand how the brief (three 
day) visit of Maude could possibly justify the contention that Gardner 
Island might eventually support a population of several hundred Gilbertese. 
The results of the settlement scheme were seen in 1964. These 
consist of an extension of the aboriginal Cocos forests of the northwest 
side over much of the area on the northwest which formerly supported a 
more extensive buka forest and over the southwest island. Approximately 
one-quarter of the land east of the channel on the south side has Cocos 
and several trees are seen on the southeast end. A wide band of 
Tournefortia and Scaevola was left on the seaward side of the south 
groves, possibly as a protection for the groves. Decapitated Cueos 
trees and dead stumps were seen on the south side as well ns living trees 
with yellowed fronds. Few of the trees bore nuts and these were very 
small. No seedlings were seen. Unlike the vigorous reproduction from 
dropped seeds on such wet islands as Palmyra and Washington, the Cocos 
groves of Gardner Island do not appear to be spreading. Former closed 
groves on the south side are very dry and an undergrowth of Sida and 
Scaevola is forming. Carefully laid out planting plots in open cleared 
