interior jungle; Scindapsm officinalis is very common everywhere in the 
interior and coast zones alike and is the principal epiphyte. Not a 
single orchid was seen anywhere in the island. A few Fungi were 
found growing on dead wood; the season of the visit was apparently 
unsuitable for terrestrial species. 
The visit of H. M.’s I. M. Survey Steamer “Investigator”, in 
November 1889, to leave a survey-party is not the first scientific visit 
that has been paid to this island. Almost exactly one hundred years 
before it was visited by Captain Kyd and Lieut. Colebrooke* who in 
December 1789 determined its position, both absolutely and in relation 
to the adjacent headland on the Arracan coast. It is not probable that 
botanical collection engaged the attention of these officers; but during 
another visit by a scientific party (April 1866) in H. M s. I. M. S. 
“ Prince Arthur ” Mr. Kurz, who was on board, landed and collected a few 
specimens. Mr. Kurz makes a very interesting remark on this visit 
which is worth repeating here;—“ I had only a few minutes stay at 
“ Diamond Island in Pegu, but I was struck, when afterwai’ds coming 
“ to the Andamans, by the similarity, nay rather identity, of the shore 
“ vegetation.”! The present collection is itself the result of only a few 
hours’ woi’k, and is larger than it otherwise could have been, owing to 
the help given by Dr. Alcock, Surgeon-Naturalist of the “ Investigator,” 
who devoted the time during which the state of the tide prevented him 
from being on the reefs to assisting the writer in obtaining specimens of 
plants. The 95 species that it includes form it is true only a part of 
what the island would yield to any one whose stay there could be pro¬ 
longed ; but it is hardly too much to assume that they are fairly re¬ 
presentative of the flora of this island. And as its geographical position 
and geological structure both point to it as the first stepping-stone in 
the series of islands connecting Arracan with Sumatra (through the 
Andamans and Nicobars) the nature of the flora seems worthy of investi¬ 
gation. 
The following is the method of presentation adopted:— 
1. A list of the plants collected is given; any interesting feature 
as regards a particular species is noted where it seems necessary to do 
so, and in every case the dissemination of the species is adverted to. 
2. A tabular view of the distribution ot the species is presented, 
* Asiatic Eesearctes, Yol. IV, p. 317; the date of this visit was 14th December 
1789. 
t Report on the Vegetation of the Andaman Islands, (1870) p. 15. Mr. Kurz uses 
the word Pegu in an extended sense which means ail Lower Burma; Diamond Island 
belongs to Arracan, not to Pegu proper; Mr. Kurz’s remark itself will be discussed 
further on. 
58 
