376 
wreck of a Coco-nut craft and, becoming aware of it, there is as little 
doubt that they would soon consume every Coco-nut the vessel contained. 
Now that the Coco-nut tree is established in the islands, it germin¬ 
ates profusely. Even towards the centre of the island on flat or muddy 
tracts one meets with groves, containing from a score to several 
hundreds of trees, that have originated from nuts which have been 
floated inland by unusually high tides and left stranded far from the 
coast. The stems of these inland examples are abnormally tall, shoot¬ 
ing up till the leafy head rises above the surrounding jungle ; as far as 
can be seen, they do not flower till this happens. Once they have 
flowered and fruited the fallen nuts multiply the species fifty-fold. 
The nut appears to have but few enemies, and though a good many may 
be seen with a hole drilled through the husk and with the kernel 
scooped out, (apparently both crabs and rats are able to effect this,) the 
number thus destroyed forms quite an inappreciable proportion of the 
whole. The ti’ee does not, however, invade the ridges, the soil is doubt¬ 
less, as it is in South Andaman, too poor to suit it; while in trees 
growing along the bays on the west side of Great Coco the contents of 
the nut are distinctly less and their quality is appreciably poorer than 
in trees at the head of the bays on the opposite side ; these in turn 
produce nuts that do not bear comparison with the magniflceut ex¬ 
amples grown in the Nicobars. 
In the subjoined table the distribution of the “ civilized ” species is 
given ; in those cases where the species is believed to be truly indigenous 
in a particular area the distribution mark indicating the area in question 
is enclosed within ( ) brackets. From this table we learn that 28 of 
these species, or 80 per cent, of the whole, are cosmopolitan in the 
tropics, and that, with the exception of one weed and two cultivated 
species, which do not occur in the Orient, they are sub-tropical as well 
as tropical species. The original home of about one-half of the species 
is known with some degree of certainty and it is interesting to note 
that 7, or 20 per cent, of the class, are originally natives of the New 
World, introduced in consequence of human intercourse into, and now 
established in, the Eastern Hemisphere as well. Ten of them are known 
to be natives of South-Eastern Asia; only six of these have spread 
beyond that area. 
186 
