BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 
»13 
Mr. Fleming has communicated one specimen, found growing ‘wild.’ 
He also found a hummock of Khus-khus grass muricatus), 
no doubt planted, growing near the mosque, and noted the 
American Aloe, introduced from the mainland, and growing well. 
The indigenous vegetation belongs almost entirely to the class 
of ‘littoral’ species, of which Mr. Hume’s, Dr. Alcock’s and 
Mr. Fleming’s collections contain ten; the only noticeable points 
concerning this group are that the whole lagoon-face of the island 
is described by Hume as lined with a hedge of Scaevola Koenigii, 
and that Thespesia populnea is reported by Fleming as here only an 
indigenous, never a planted tree. 
There is, says Dr. Alcock, no true jungle in the interior,* and the 
only species that cannot be classed either as ‘weeds,’ or as ‘littoral 
species’ are Vitis car9^osa (probably bird-introduced), and Tylophora 
asthmatica andLeptadenia reticulata (probably both wind-introduced). 
As in the case of Akati, the majority of the species present are 
either weeds or escapes, planti unintentionally introduced by man; 
of these, the three collections together contain thirty-one species. 
Kadamum lies south-west of Kiltan and due south of Ohitlac in 
Lon. 72° 44' E. and Lat.° 11° 12' N. Of this island topographical 
accounts have been given by Mr. Robinson who visited it in 1844 and 
1845, and by Mr. Hume who visited it and made a botanical collec¬ 
tion in 1875, while Dr. Alcock and Mr. Fleming made a second and 
very exhaustive botanical collection in 1891. Kadamum is the 
largest island of the group and is situated on a long oval atoll like 
that of Kiltan ; the reef here is, however, about 4^ miles long, and 
the island itself 3^ miles long and about three-quartei-s of a mile 
across the widest portion. The lagoon is also larger and much deeper 
than that of Kiltan, but with no good passage through the reef.f 
“ The body of the island appears genei’ally lower than that of any 
“ of the others, and has an excellent natural protection in a ridge of 
“low sand-drift which runs down the west side,”+ The soil is 
naturally fertile, being damper and firmer than in some of the other 
* Alcock, in Hoskyn, “ Administration Eeport of Marine Survey of India,” year 
1889-90, p. 13. 
f Hume, “ Stray Feathers,” vol. vi., pp. 443, 444. 
J Eobiuson, “ Madr. Journ.,” vol. xiv., p. 20, 
313 
