1 
19 
...ter from heavy seas is occasionally washed several hundred feet 
oato the island from all directions. This probably accounts for 
-he lack of vegetation^) however.moth species of albatross and the 
- • . .... f * tu Q*- 
Blue-faced Booby nest in small numbers on the island. 
This island did not exist in 1923 when Dr. Vetmore visited the 
atoll,, but is listed on the Hydrographic Office chart for 1937. 
3ird 4 Sand, and Planetree Islands: These islets, though rela- 
j 
tively constant in position, are continually-changing sand spits 
located along the southern reef between Southeast and Grass Islands. 
•) Ibey are nowhere wider than 100 feet, and vary in length, depending 
on winds and tide, from five ’to fifteen hundred feet in an east- 
o, 
vast direction. They support no vegetation^, bpdt are occasionally j 
used by nesting Black-footed Albatross and Blue-faced Booby, and as 
hauling grounds for seals# 
The shifting, splitting, and reforming of sand spits along the 
southern reef probably accounts for the twelve islets reported for 
V 
M©ari and HeiSnes Beef in 185§4 ft ia quite certain that the 
*<• 
U.S.S. Lackawanna ** in 1867 wa r a-- an . osA^i-&srxr£— 
the western islands of Seal and Grass named by Dr. Wetmore in 1923* 
was _ , 
___ (There 4-s information on the vegetation of **earl and 
7 
Hermes Reef prior to 1963. The Tanager Expedition collected 6ome 
specimens in 1923 .^ At this time the vegetation of Southeast Island 
was reported as consisting of six species. Eragrostis variabilis 
and I ipturus reuens were distributed indesc-Mjainately on the island 
Sesuvium ■portulacafetrum grew on the reef rock areas and in the 
muddy flats around the ponds at the eastern end of the island. 
£>0 
A- 
