16 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL BISTORT SOCIETY, 1892. 
note), and therefore possibly, though not a cultivated species, one 
originally deliberately introduced because of the excellent quality 
of the fibre it yields, which is used, by the Mapilla population of the 
mainland at least, for making fishing-lines. Another interesting 
weed is a rather insignificant, but very rare sedge [Cyperus hyaliiius). 
The most interesting “ escape*^ is undoubtedly the Indigo plant 
which forms whole fields, broken only by patches of Ixora coccinea 
(I. Bandhuca)* 
A short distance to the south of Kadamum (Lon. 72° 43' E., Lat. 
11° 8' N.) lies Ameni, the most important of the British Laccadives. 
This island, about two miles long and three-quarters of a mile 
across, is low, with a very uneven surface. Situated originally on 
the eastern side of its atoll, the island has grown westward into the 
lagoon, till now no lagoon-space isleft, and the island is consequently 
so ill-protected from the sea that the soaking of coco-nut coir 
among the sand, practised in all the other islands, is here impossible. 
The soil in this island is naturally poorer, according to Mr. Robin¬ 
son, who, as well as Mr. Hume, has visited and described it, than it is 
in Kiltan or Kadamum, a fact which Mr. Kobinson explainsf by the 
consumption in various ways, by its dense population, of the fallen 
coco-nut leaves, thus depriving the ground to some extent of the 
advantage of the natural manure that the soil of the other islands 
receives. The whole island is under cultivation, principally coco¬ 
nut, and there is no underwood. The coco-nut plantation runs 
down to the sea-side on the east and the north, but along the 
western, more exposed side, a strip of waste land 200 yards wide is 
interposed between the plantation and the shore, while at the south¬ 
west corner and south end of the island, where the exposure is too 
great for young trees and the dry sand is deeper than elsewhere 
many acres are lying waste. 
The structure of the island is like that of the other formed 
islands already described j the soil is of light coral sand, finer 
than, and quite as dry as, common sea-sand, or, in some parts, of 
small loose pieces of coral. This soil varies in thickness from two 
316 
t Hume, “ Stray Feathers, ” vol. iv., p. 445. 
It Robinson, “ Madr. Jouru.,” vol. xiv-, p. Id. 
