XX 
NATURAL HISTORY 
483 
The next morning after anchoring I went on shore on 
Direction Island. The strip of dry land is only a few hundred 
yards in width ; on the lagoon side there is a white calcareous 
beach, the radiation from which under this sultry climate was 
very oppressive ; and on the outer coast a solid broad flat of 
coral-rock served to break the violence of the open sea. 
Excepting near the lagoon, where there is some sand, the 
land is entirely composed of rounded fragments of coral. In 
such a loose, dry, stony soil, the climate of the intertropical 
regions alone could produce a vigorous vegetation. On some 
of the smaller islets nothing could be more elegant than the 
manner in which the young and full-grown cocoa-nut trees, 
without destroying each other’s symmetry, were mingled into 
one wood. A beach of glittering white sand formed a border 
to these fairy spots. 
I will now give a sketch of the natural history of these 
islands, which, from its very paucity, possesses a peculiar 
interest. The cocoa-nut tree, at the first glance, seems to 
compose the whole wood ; there are, however, five or six other 
trees. One of these grows to a very large size, but, from the 
extreme softness of its wood, is useless ; another sort affords 
excellent timber for ship-building. Besides the trees, the 
number of plants is exceedingly limited, and consists of 
insignificant weeds. In my collection, which includes, I 
believe, nearly the perfect Flora, there are twenty species, 
without reckoning a moss, lichen, and fungus. To this number 
two trees must be added ; one of which was not in flower, 
and the other I only heard of. The latter is a solitary tree 
of its kind, and grows near the beach, where, without doubt, 
the one seed was thrown up by the waves. A Guilandina also 
grows on only one of the islets. I do not include in the above 
list the sugar-cane, banana, some other vegetables, fruit-trees, and 
imported grasses. As the islands consist entirely of coral, and at 
one time must have existed as mere water-washed reefs, all their 
terrestrial productions must have been transported here by the 
waves of the sea. In accordance with this, the Florula has quite 
the character of a refuge for the destitute : Professor Henslow 
informs me that of the twenty species nineteen belong to different 
genera, and these again to no less than sixteen families ! 1 
1 These plants are described in the Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. i. 1838, p. 337. 
