BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 
11 
uninhabited island of Suheli {‘ Soilee/ Wood) near the centre of its 
south-eastern side. According to Lieut. Wood’s list, this island 
is visited on account of its coco-nuts, but no topographical account 
of the atoll being available, it is impossible to say with certainty 
whether Suheli is a sand-bank like Pirmalla, an accumulation of 
coral debris like the islets on Cherbaniani, or a formed-island like 
Bitrapar. 
The most northerly of the formed islands and the northmost 
member of the central chain is the inhabited island of Chitlac (Lon. 
72*^ 45' E,, Lat. 11° 45' N.), visited and described by Mr. Robinson. 
Mr. Hume was unable to land in 1875,* and Dr. Giles, who 
landed during the Investigators visit in 1887, confined his attention 
to the marine fauna.t Mr. Robinson describes the island as 
two to two and a half miles long and about three-quarters of 
a mile wide, situated on the eastern side of a large and perfect 
atoll. The surface is less even than in the other islands, owing 
to a ridge of sanddrift that runs up the middle, rendering the 
soil so poor that the growth of coco-nut tree is slow and their 
outturn poor., ‘‘ Low mounds of sand occupy a great part of the 
“ centre and best protected parts of the island on which nothing 
“ grows, except scanty crops of a plant called Teerny, on the roots of 
“ which a small ball about the size of a pea grows ; after the plant 
“ has withered, these are gathered from among the loose sand and 
‘'used by the islanders. Dry cultivation on this island is very in- 
" significant.” J The Teerny is obviously Tacca pinnatifida, which 
we know from Lieut. Wood to be cultivated in Anderut, and from 
specimens in the Investigator collections to be grown in Akati and 
in Minikoi. The tubers, however, are apparently unusually small in 
Chitlac, for the specimens of those grown in Akati and Minikoi sent 
to Calcutta are as large as plums. Still even these latter compare 
very unfavourably with the tubers of Tacca as it occurs wild on the 
shores of the Andaman Sea ; there they are usually larger than a 
man’s fist, and are often as large as the human head. 
* Hume, “ Stray Feathers,” vol. iv. p. 436. 
t Carpenter, “Administration Report of Marine Surrey of India,” year 1887-8, p. 7. 
X Robinson, “ Madr. Jonrn.,” vol. xiv., p. 26. 
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