363 
element in the Andamans flora. Bat a consideration of that section of 
Table VIII in which they are detailed shows that they afford little cor¬ 
roboration of this hypothesis for there is only one species {Bedoelea flabel- 
lum) restricted to the Andamans and Ceylon, and as this in a. Cryptogam, 
too great a reliance ought not to be placed on the fact; Indian Crypto¬ 
gams, other than ferns, have not as yet been assiduously collected and the 
occurrence here of this Ceylon species perhaps indicates rather a wide 
dispersion for it than any peculiar affinity of the flora of the group with 
that of Ceylon. 
The general conelusion to which we are led by the evidence these 
tables afford is, that the flora of the Coco Group is almost purely Trans- 
gangetic, and that while this is the case there is no appreeiable Chinese 
or Australian element present. We have still to ascertain whether it is 
an Indo-Chinese or a Malayan element that prevails in the flora, and 
to what extent any independent element exists. 
From their geographical position we have to look upon the Coco 
Islands as part of the Andaman Group : in one sense therefore all the 
Coco Island species are Andamanese. But there are as many as 30 of 
the species in the list,* * * § or about 8 per cent, of the flora, whose presence 
in tli.e Andamans is due only to their having been found in the Coco 
Group. At the same time, however, it must be remembered that 19 
species, or over 5 per cent, of the flora, are peculiar to the Andamans as 
a whole, not occurring either in Indo-China or in Malaya, while 24 
more are only known as Indo-Chinese from their presence in Tenasserim.f 
Of these 24 Andamans-Tenasserim species, 22, or 6 per cent, of the flora, 
are confined to these two districts, only two of them extending even as 
far as the Malay Peninsula. The bearing of this peculiar distribution in 
tlie Andamans and in Tenasserim, but neither northward to Indo-China 
nor southward to Malaya, the writer has already had occasion to note 
it will be referred to again below in connection with the probable orio-in 
of the Coco Island flora. Another circumstance that must be borne in 
mind is that as yet very little is known of the flora of North Andaman, 
and it is not improbable that some of the 30 Non-Andaman Coco species 
will yet be found to occur in that island.§ 
* Indicated in the list of distribation by [] brackets in the Andamans column. 
t Indicated by [] brackets in the Indo-Chinese column. 
J Ann. Boy. Bot. Garden, vol. iii, p. 238. 
§ As an example of this possibility may be instanced Bendrocalamus Strictus 
which does not occur in South Andaman. Mr, Godwin-Austen, formerly of Port 
Blair, one of the very few officers who have ascended Saddle Peak, the highest 
point of North Andaman, has informed the writer that at one point in the ascent a 
Bamboo is met with quite different h'om the Bamboos near Port Blair ; not very 
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