be put down in the list of sea-introduced species; they are welVknown 
as weeds of cultivation elsewhere, being diffused because of the readi¬ 
ness with which the indehiscent segments of their fruits attach them¬ 
selves to the clothes of man and to the fur of his domestic animals. 
Here they are undoubtedly not weeds introduced by man, but it may 
well be that they have been introduced by bii’ds, owing to fi’agments 
of their pods having attached themselves to their feathers. Another 
species to which the same I’emarks apply is Adenostemma viscosum, though 
this is more probably sea-introduced than the other; still another is Boer- 
Tiaavia re-pens ; perhaps all four are distributed at one time by the sea, at 
another by birds. Lippia nodiflora may also be a bird-introduced species ; 
its seeds may have been brought in the pellets of mud that become 
attached to the feet, and to the feathers at the base of the bill of 
wading- and swimming-birds. Acliyranthes porphyristacliya yfhich^ from 
its situation in these islands, cannot be a weed introduced by man, and 
which is a common sea-shore species in the Nicobax-s and in the 
Laccadives also, may perhaps be bird-introduced like the JDesmodia. 
If, as is suggested, now one agency, now another is responsible for 
the dispersal of these species, it is easy to understand why those 
species should all be “ littoral ” in these islands and yet occur as 
inland species in other localities. Mucuna gigantea will be readily 
admitted as an unequivocal example of this mode of distribution, 
as will Derris sinuata, for both occur in the beach-forest more com¬ 
monly than they do on the ridges ; so too, will the other Leguminosce of 
the list except perhaps Entada scandens. And yet Entada scandens 
must be sometimes an introduced species, for it is one of the plants 
that occur on Narcondam, an island for which it seems impossible to 
postulate any previous land-connection ; the writer moreover had the good 
fortune to find one of its enormous seeds germinating along with those 
of Mucuna, etc., on the sandy islet between Great Coco and Jerry. 
Physalis minima is a species that at first suggests bird-introduction 
rather than sea-introduction, and its wide inland dispersal undoubtedly 
is largely owing to its fruits being eaten and to the subsequent voiding 
of its hal’d discoid seeds. But here it is only found close to the sea just 
above the spray-line and its fuits were found in the “ drifts ” here and 
there, the light bladder-like calyx amply accounting for their flotation; 
the pulp of the fruit probably protects the seeds, if such protection be 
necessary, from the action of the salt water. Among the Gonvolvulacece, 
for which this means of dispersal is not at all uncommon, the only species 
now included that calls for remark is Convolvulus parviflorus. It is, 
however, one of the commonest of the sea-face creepers along the west 
coast of Great Coco, and is equally common on Narcondam, Barren 
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