295 
however, on the Little Coco. The principal grass on these slopes, and 
throughout the two clearings as well, is the very uninviting Andropogon 
contortus, mixed with a small amount of Ischoemum ciliare; besides these 
there is some Cyperus polystachyus, and in the clearings of both islands 
Eleusine indica in tufts, with here and there a little Panicum colonum. 
In Table Island, though not in Great Coco, Eleusine cegyptiaca and Panic¬ 
um llelopus have also become established. In this connection it should 
be mentioned that Thuarea sarmentosa, which is the common sward- 
grass under the coco-nut trees of Great Coco, is very rare in Little Coco ; 
the only spot where the coco-nut zone is there of any width has Ischcemum 
muticum growing throughout it in abundance; in Great Coco Ischcemum 
muticum is rare. 
On the low ground the epiphytes in the taller trees are two species 
of Hoy a, Scindapsus officinalis, Dendrohium sectmdum (the only common 
light-loving orchid, which is particularly common on trees of Heritiera 
littoralis, etc., about the mouths of creeks), Bavallia solida, Polypodium 
(Niphobolus) adnascens, and Polypodium quercifolium. There is a great 
absence of epiphytes from the trees growing in the interior, the ferns 
mentioned are in particular confined to the trees nearest the sea. In the 
muddy ground behind mangrove-swamps there are on the stems of 
Gynometra and other trees, great numbers of an oi’chid that proves, on 
having been flowered in the Calcutta garden, to be a Potites with violet 
flowers ; apparently, however, it is only a variety of D. Wightii. 
Perhaps a better idea of the vegetation of the islands may be ob¬ 
tained if extracts from the writer’s notes, enumerating the species met with 
in particular localities, be given. Of these only a few are selected, illus¬ 
trative, as far as possible, of different kinds of soil and of diverse situa¬ 
tions. From these it will be seen that any attempt to divide the forest 
into distinct zones and regions is attended with difficulty, since the 
various forests— Mangrove, Beach, Mud-fiat, dind jungles—merge 
into each other on every hand. 
In crossing the island on the drier level ground near the south 
end of the island one finds after the belt of coco-nuts, which is there 
about 100 yards wide on the western side, a jungle at first not very 
dense of Ganarium commune; Aglaia andamanica; Miliusasp .; Gyrocarpu,s 
Jacquinii, very common ; Mimusops littoralis, the most common tree, with 
often great masses of Hoya, and near the sea with Polypodium querci¬ 
folium as epiphytes—all the Mimusops here is uniformly dying back in 
the topmost branches ; Bomhax sp., looking much more like B. mala- 
baricum as to leaves than like the Andaman species identified by Kurz 
withP. insigne; Dracontomelum sylvestre; Spondias mangifera; Semecarpus 
heterophylla ; Albizzia procera-; Bipteroearpvs sp. ; Sterculia alata ; Erio- 
105 
