Observations Of A Naturalist In The Pacific Between 1896 And 1899 - free ebook by H. B. (Henry Brougham) Guppy

OBSERVATIONS OF A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC BETWEEN 1896 AND 1899

NA RARO (2,420 feet) from the south-west, a peak of acid andesite. NDRANDRAMEA (1,800 feet) from the south-east, a peak of acid andesite rising about a thousand feet from its base....

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PREFACE

During a sojourn in the Pacific, which covered a period of rather over a year in Hawaii (1896-97), and of two years and three months in Fiji (1897-99), my attention was mainly confined to the study of plant-distribution and to the examination of the geological structure of Vanua Levu. With Hillebrand’s “Flora of Hawaii” always in my hands I roamed over the large island of Hawaii, ascending the three principal mountains of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai, and in the case of my second ascent of

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LIST OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES QUOTED IN THIS BOOK

Dana, J. D. , on the Geology of Fiji in vol. x, Geology, United States Exploring Expedition Reports, Philadelphia, 1849. Kleinschmidt, T. , “Reisen auf den Viti-Inseln,” Journal des Museum Godeffroy, heft 14, Hamburg, 1879. Horne, J. , “A Year in Fiji,” London, 1881. Wichmann, A. , “Ein Beitrag zur Petrographie des Viti-Archipels, Mineralogische und Petrographische, Mittheilungen,” band v, heft 1, Wien, 1882. Renard, A. , on andesites from Kandavu, “Report on the Petrology of Oceanic Islands,” v

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CHAPTER I GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON SOME OF THE LEADINGPHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE ISLAND

The remarkable shape of this island at once attracts the attention: and indeed it is in its irregular outline and in the occurrence over a large portion of its surface of submarine tuffs and agglomerates that will be found a key to the study of its history. With an extreme length of 98 miles, an average breadth of 15 to 20 miles, and a maximum elevation of nearly 3,500 feet, it has an area, estimated at 2,400 square miles, comparable with that of the county of Devon. Whilst its peculiarly long a

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CHAPTER II. ON THE EVIDENCE OF EMERGENCE OR OF UPHEAVAL AT THE SEA-BORDERS.

One would have expected that in an island where submarine muds and tuffs are of such common occurrence at the surface, extending from the sea-border to elevations of 2,000 feet and over, upraised coral reefs would be also frequent and extensive. But it is remarkable that the uplifted masses of reef-limestone, so characteristic of the islands of the Lau Group, are here very scantily represented. It is certainly true that the fossiliferous volcanic muds that form the foundations of coral reefs are

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CHAPTER III THE HOT SPRINGS OF VANUA LEVU

The abundance of hot springs in Vanua Levu, and in fact in the group generally, is not commonly known. In the earlier accounts of these islands those of Savu-savu are often alone referred to, not only for this island but for the whole archipelago. The United States Exploring Expedition under Wilkes spent six months in 1840 in making a survey of the whole group. Yet Dana, who was attached to the expedition, remarks that “the only trace of actual volcanic heat which the islands appear to contain i

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CHAPTER IV DESCRIPTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL AND GENERAL PHYSICAL FEATURES OF VANUA LEVU.

In this chapter the detailed description of the island is commenced, beginning with the western extremity and proceeding eastward. Most of the petrological details are dealt with under their respective sections; but it has been found necessary also to frequently refer to them in this connection. The Naivaka Peninsula. —This mountainous peninsula forms the conspicuous feature of the western extremity of Vanua Levu. Amongst all the mountains of the island its appearance from a distance gave most p

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CHAPTER V DESCRIPTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL AND GENERAL PHYSICAL FEATURES(continued)

The Seatura Mountain. —In my description of the profile of this part of Vanua Levu, reference has already been made (p. 3 ) to the great mass of this mountain which occupies five-sixths of the breadth of the island. Viewed from seaward it looks like a huge table-topped mountain-ridge, and as such it is represented in the Admiralty charts; but when its true contours are distinguished it appears, when defined by the 300-feet level in the map, as a somewhat rounded mass, measuring 12 miles in lengt

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CHAPTER VI DESCRIPTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL AND GENERAL PHYSICAL FEATURES(continued)

The Basaltic Plateau of Wainunu. —This table-land extends for a distance of seven miles from the base of the Ndrandramea mountains in the heart of the island, where it is elevated 1,100 to 1,200 feet above the sea, to the valley immediately north of the hill of Ulu-i-ndali, where within a short distance of its termination it still retains a height of 700 to 800 feet. Limited on the west by the valley of the Wainunu River and on the east by that of the Yanawai River, its breadth varies usually be

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The Ndrandramea District

This hilly region of acid andesites is a continuation of the mountainous backbone of the island, being separated from the basaltic mountain of Seatura by the saddle formed by the Na Savu table-land. These acid andesites exhibit in nearly all cases a felsitic groundmass and phenocrysts of plagioclase and rhombic pyroxene; whilst many of them are characterised by brown hornblende more or less pseudomorphosed in the manner described on page 306 , and a few display porphyritic quartz. Although these

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Mount Vatu Kaisia and District

This peak, 1,880 feet in height, starts up suddenly in the mountainous interior of the island. Being situated in the valley of the Yanawai river, which opens to the south, it forms a conspicuous landmark for vessels off the south coast; but from most other points of view, on account of its peculiar situation, it is usually difficult and often impossible to obtain even a glimpse of it. [53] From its remarkable blunt-topped conical shape it has received the not very appropriate name of Marling Spi

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The Nandronandranu District.

Lying north-west of Vatu Kaisia is an elevated district which I have named after its highest summit, a square-topped peak rather higher than Vatu Kaisia and probably about 2,100 feet above the sea. Koro-ni-yalewa, which signifies “town of the women,” is another name of this peak. It is shown in the sketch given on page 113 , and is situated about two miles north-west of Vatu Kaisia. I did not ascend this mountain, which from its form would seem to be made of an acid andesite like the Ndrandramea

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The Tavia Ranges.

North of Vatu Kaisia the elevated Nandronadranu district divides into two ranges, one of which stretches eastward to the south of Na Raro as far as the gap of that name, whilst the other extends southward on the east side of the Yanawai valley. Near the angle of bifurcation is situated Mount Tavia, a remarkable pyramidal peak marked 2,210 feet in the Admiralty chart and lying 1½ miles north-east (N33°E) of Vatu Kaisia. It is shown in the view facing page 108 . All this region is densely wooded,

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Na Raro.

In Na Raro we have one of the most interesting of the isolated hornblende-andesite mountains of Vanua Levu. Unlike Vatu Kaisia, which often eludes the observation, Na Raro is visible from most points of view. It is double-peaked, the two peaks lying in a north and south line and rising precipitously. It is this feature that gives the mountain such a variety in its profile. From the north and south it appears as shown in the accompanying sketch as a sharp conical peak. From the north-east and sou

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The Basaltic Lowlands of Sarawanga and Ndreketi.

One of the most striking features of the north side of the island is the extensive undulating plain that stretches from the Lekutu river to near Sealevu on the head-waters of the Ndreketi, a distance of almost 30 miles. In its western half this plain slopes gradually to the sea-coast, where it is bordered by a broad belt of mangroves. In its eastern half, from the mouth of the Ndreketi eastward, the lofty Nawavi coast range intervenes between it and the sea-shore. Its breadth varies usually betw

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The Nawavi Range.

With this remarkable coast range, which fronts the Mathuata sea-border for a distance of 12 or 13 miles between Ravi-ravi Point and Nanduri, I have unfortunately but scant acquaintance. It attains its maximum elevation in Mount Nawavi of 2,238 feet, and is described by Mr. J. P. Thomson, [60] who surveyed this coast, as broken in two nearly opposite Niurua, the pyramidal mountain of Koro Navuta rising in the gap. Various other peaks, besides that of Nawavi, are marked in the latest Admiralty cha

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The District between Nanduri Bay and Wailevu River

The sea-border between Nanduri Bay and Middle Point, nearly four miles to the east, consists of a fringe of lowland margined by the mangrove-belts and banked by a line of hills between a quarter and two-thirds of a mile inland. These hills form a continuation of the Nawavi coast range of mountains extending from Ravi-ravi Point to Nanduri. They attain their greatest height in the case of Ulu-i-sori, a cockscomb-like peak 1,141 feet above the sea. Another of these hills, Vatu-tangiri, is capped b

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The Lambasa Plains

These remarkable inland plains, about ten miles long and three to five miles broad, are well described in the Admiralty chart as a low undulating country covered with grass, screw-pines, and Casuarina trees. They are backed by the mountains forming the central axis of the island, whilst broken groups of hills, not usually more than 500 or 600 feet in height and attaining in Ulu-i-Mbau an elevation of 1,160 feet, intervene between them and the sea-border. They are traversed by the Wailevu, Lambas

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The Va-lili Range

This range extends from the Na Raro Gap before mentioned to the Ndreke-ni-wai river. It is partly isolated on the north-east from the Korotini Range, the extension eastward of the mountainous axis of the island, by a depression or saddle which at its lowest part is not more than 1,200 or 1,300 feet above the sea; but there is no real break in the line of mountains. It is, however, convenient to make this distinction, and I have named the dip between the two ranges, the Waisali Saddle. The range

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The Waisali Saddle

This saddle, which connects the Va-lili and the Koro-tini ranges, has probably a minimum elevation of not over 1,200 or 1,300 feet. To understand this district thoroughly a regular survey is, however, necessary. It is only at times in this densely wooded range that a view of the surrounding country is obtained; but in spite of this drawback I was able by a diligent use of watch, aneroid, and prismatic compass, to obtain a fair general notion of the surface-configuration. The track that proceeds

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The Tract of Nakambuta

This is a tract of broken country that projects from the mountainous backbone of the island (between the Va-lili and Koro-tini ranges) into the heart of the Ndreketi plains in the vicinity of Natua. As limited by the 300-feet contour line, it is indicated in the map attached to this work. Its general level varies between 300 and 600 feet in elevation; but a number of isolated peaks are included within this area. More than one of these hills attain a height of 1,000 feet, Nakambuta a very conspic

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The Valley of the Ndreke-ni-wai and its Tributaries

Ndreke-ni-wai, which signifies “the hollow of the water,” is the name of a broad tidal estuary, opening into Savu-savu Bay, which is formed by the union, about half a mile above its mouth, of two rivers, the Mbale-mbale River flowing from the north-west past a village of that name, and the Vatu-kawa River, the largest, flowing from the eastward, which I have also named after a village on its banks. The valleys of these two rivers are separated by a mountainous dividing-ridge connected by a saddl

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The Koro-tini Range or Table-land

The level-topped range that forms the mountainous backbone of the island for a distance of nearly 10 miles is one of the remarkable features of Vanua Levu. [66] In the general profile of the island it is named the Koro-tini Table-land on account of the level profile which it presents whether viewed from the north or from the south. But this is merely its appearance en masse . When it is examined in detail it is found that although much of the range has an elevation between 2,000 and 2,400 feet a

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The Koro-mbasanga Range

As is illustrated in the accompanying profile-sketch, the relatively level-topped range of Koro-tini gives place at its eastern end to a broken line of mountains, of which the round-topped Koro-tambu, 2,753 feet in height, and the pinnacled Koro-mbasanga, [77] 2,537 feet, are the highest peaks. Further east lies the broad Vuinandi Gap which separates the Koro-mbasanga and Mount Thurston, or Thambeyu, ranges. The twin-peaks of Mount Mbatini, the highest mountain of the island, appear in the backg

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Mount Mbatini

According to the Admiralty chart this is the highest mountain in Vanua Levu, its elevation being 3,437 feet. It has twin peaks which lie either N.W. and S.E. or W.N.W. and E.S.E. with each other. The northerly or westerly peak is pointed and tooth-like. Hence probably arises its name of Mbatini (mbati-tooth). The southerly or easterly peak is known as Soro-levu. It has a broadly conical outline with a truncated summit. The mountain is named Koro-mbasanga in the Admiralty chart, a name that reall

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The Vuinandi Gap

I have given this name to the break between the Thambeyu (Mount Thurston) and Koro-mbasanga ranges, where the level of the mountainous backbone of the island descends to about 1,200 feet above the sea. This is the route taken by the track from Vuinandi on the shores of Natewa Bay across the island to Lambasa. At Vuinandi the mountains recede from the coast leaving a broad level plain extending about two miles inland to the village of Tarawau without rising over 60 feet above the sea. Basaltic ro

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The Thambeyu or Mount Thurston Range

Mount Thurston is the name given in the Admiralty charts to the highest peak (3,124 feet) of this range. There does not appear to be any general native name. The highest peak visible from the Lambasa side is known as “Thambeyu.” The lofty mountain-mass, as it is viewed from Vuinandi, is known as Ulu-i-ndiri-ndiri. [81] The whole mountain-range has yet to be properly explored. It is a much more complicated system of mountain-ridges than is indicated in the chart, my acquaintance with it being res

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The Avuka Range

This high range, which lies immediately to the east of Lambasa, attains its greatest elevation in Mount Avuka, which is 1,976 feet above the sea. It represents the extension northward to the coast of the inland Thambeyu mountains that culminate in Mount Thurston. In its upper portion Mount Avuka presents bare precipitous faces apparently of agglomerates and some hundreds of feet in height. My acquaintance with this range is scanty. In a traverse from Lambasa to Ngele-mumu I crossed it a mile or

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The Valanga Range

This range, which trends N.W. and S.E. between the Mariko mountain-ridge and the head of the valley of Na Kula, attains a height of 1,880 feet at its N.W. and of 1,710 feet at its S.E. end. The average elevation, however, is probably not over 1,300 or 1,400 feet. My acquaintance with the range is only partial, but it is sufficient to bring to light some of its leading structural features. Those who follow me will find in these mountains a very interesting region for their geological explorations

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The Mountain-Ridge of Mariko

This mountain-ridge, which trends nearly east and west and joins the Valanga Range, rises in mass to a height of rather over 2,000 feet. Above this elevation it terminates in several short conical peaks, of which the highest, 2,890 feet, is named Mariko, the Drayton Peak of the chart. One of the peaks, lying a little to the east of the summit, and apparently between 100 and 200 feet lower, is called the Vatu-mbutho or White Rock. In the profile of the range, as seen nearly “end-on” from the dist

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The Savu-savu Peninsula

I include in this district the promontory west of Naindi Bay and Sava-reka-reka Bay. Although its surface is much cut up, it has, when viewed from a distance, a fairly even profile and attains a maximum height of rather over 800 feet. From the region east of it, it is separated by the Naindi Gap. Here one can cross the peninsula between the two bays above named without rising more than 50 feet above the sea. The elevated interior is divided into two parts, which are divided by a col , about 250

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The District Between Naindi Bay and the Salt Lake

Three or four of the peaks of this hilly district rise to about 1,000 feet or rather over, the highest being that of Na Suva-suva, which attains a height of 1,110 feet. Since my acquaintance with this region is incomplete, I will confine my remarks to the localities actually examined. Through the kindness of Mr. F. Spence, I was able to make use of a track cleared to the top of Na Suva-suva. This eminence, which forms a conspicuous landmark for many miles, both landward and seaward, has a rounde

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The Salt Lake

The low isthmus, about 2½ miles in breadth, which connects the Natewa Peninsula with the rest of the island, can be crossed without rising more than 40 or 50 feet above the sea. From the occurrence of upraised reefs in the islets and in the low sea-cliffs of the south coast it may be inferred that at no distant period in the history of Vanua Levu this isthmus was submerged. The lake, which is oblong in form, is about four-fifths of a mile long and about two-fifths broad. Its maximum depth accord

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The Natewa Peninsula

This remarkable peninsula is connected with the rest of the island by the low-lying Salt Lake district, a narrow isthmus, described in the preceding chapter, which one can cross without rising 50 feet above the sea. My acquaintance with this region is far from complete; but from the following notes a fair general idea of its geological characters may be gathered. By referring to the map it will be seen that there are three groups of mountains. The north-eastern culminates in Mount Freeland or Ng

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Mount Freeland or the Ngala Range

This high range forms a conspicuous object in the profile of this part of the island. It derives its Fijian name from the old war-town of Ngala that was situated at an elevation of 1,500 or 1,600 feet overlooking Ngara-vutu on the west. The main mass of the range takes a crescentic sweep, 3 or 4 miles in extent and facing Natewa Bay. It incloses the coast district of Tunuloa. The steep mountain-slopes here rise to 2,000 feet and over, the greatest elevation being 2,740 feet. The densely wooded s

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The North-east Portion of the Island

This large area, which extends for a distance of nearly forty miles from the eastern slopes of the Mount Thurston Range to Undu Point, forms the region closing in Natewa Bay on the north. It would be difficult to imagine an area of this size with a greater variety of surface or showing such a lack of arrangement of its principal features. The hills and mountains on the north side gather at the coast, and extensive inland plains, raised but a few feet above the sea and strewn with silicified cora

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The Southern Sea-border between Vuinandi and the Vicinity of Tawaki

The basic rocks, which characterise this long extent of coast, give place about two miles west of Tawaki to the acid rocks. I will proceed methodically with the description from Vuinandi eastward. ( a ) The coast between Vuinandi and Nakarambo. —Along this coast, spurs from the Mount Thurston Range reach the borders of Natewa Bay, forming a succession of small bays a mile or so across, on the shores of which are situated the villages and towns of Vuinandi, Ndaku-ndaku, Korotasere, and Nakarambo.

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The Inland Mountainous Region between the EasternFoot of the Mount Thurston Range and the Vicinity of Tawaki

This inland region corresponds for the most part to the tract of coast before described between Vuinandi and the vicinity of Tawaki. We have here a very much broken area traversed in a northerly and southerly direction by mountain-ridges and penetrated in places on the north side by prolongations of the Wainikoro and Kalikoso plains. The two loftiest summits, the Ndoendamu and Savu-riti peaks of the chart, rise respectively to heights of 2,481 and 2,238 feet. The former is the Hale Peak of the W

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The Coast Ranges and Sea-border between Mbuthai-sauand Thawaro or Mbekana Bay

We have in this region the mountains and hills at the coast and the low-lying plains inland. This feature of the north side of Vanua Levu is very remarkable. For some sixty miles, that is to say, for more than half the length of the island, between the mouth of the river Ndreketi and Thawaro or Mbekana Bay, Vanua Levu possesses this character. The coast ranges west of Lambasa, where basic rocks evidently prevail, have been referred to on pages 135 , 136 . Those east of the Lambasa mountains as f

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(1) The Sea-border between Lambasa and Mbuthai-sau

In the sea-border between Lambasa and Mbuthai-sau we have the junction of the regions of basic and acid rocks, the former extending westward to Naivaka, the latter reaching to Undu Point. In such a locality the two types of rocks might be expected to be associated, and this is what occurs. Acid pumice-tuffs and basic agglomerates, sometimes associated, are here displayed. In the low hills between Lambasa and Vuni-ika Bay, which lies west of Mbuthai-sau, I found basic agglomerates prevailing, tog

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(2) The Sea-border between the Mbuthai-sau and the Langa-langa Rivers

The rocks predominating in this district are white and pale-yellow pumice-tuffs and pumice agglomerates, with quartz-porphyries and oligoclase-trachytes as intrusive masses. The light colour of the sea-cliffs, thus composed, makes them conspicuous from seaward. Their appearance evidently led Mr. Horne into an error in 1878 when he viewed this coast from his canoe during his sea-passage from Lambasa to Tutu. “The coast from Lambasa”—he says—“is a series of bold projecting bluffs of agglomerate in

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(3) Sea-border between the Langa-langa River and Thawaro Bay

The next part of the coast which I visited was that opposite Tutu Island. Here a range of high hills, 1,100 or 1,200 feet in height, sends a lofty spur to the sea, in the precipitous faces of which are exposed breccia-tuffs and agglomerates derived from acid rocks. A specimen of the tuffs shows, besides fragments of altered rhyolitic or trachytic rocks, portions of decomposing pumice, the vacuoles and tubular cavities of which are filled with alteration products. The blocks in the agglomerates a

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The Wainikoro and Kalikoso Plains

These extensive inland plains occupy a considerable area in this part of the island. I estimate that there is an area of about 20 square miles that does not exceed an elevation of 100 feet above the sea and is often much less. Of the two villages situated in the midst of these plains, about 5 miles inland, Kalikoso is about 30 feet and Wainikoro is scarcely 20 feet above the sea; whilst much of the surrounding district is similarly low. Taking the 300-feet contour-line as a guide, this low-lying

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The Undu Promontory

The north-east portion of the island terminates in a long narrow promontory which I have named after Undu Point at its extremity. Commencing at Thawaro Bay and near Tawaki it runs in a straight line for a distance of between 13 and 14 miles, its breadth varying between 1½ and 2½ miles. Its greatest elevation of nearly 1,600 feet is attained at its western end; and it diminishes irregularly in height as one proceeds towards Undu Point, where a height of 400 feet is maintained about a mile from th

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(1) The District Extending two and a half miles West of Tawaki

When proceeding eastward along the north coast of Natewa Bay one enters the region of acid rocks between 2 and 2½ miles west of Tawaki. Here the country is much broken, picturesque hills with bare precipitous faces rising up near the coast, one of which named Natoto has a rudely conical and truncated form. Grey oligoclase-trachytes having a specific gravity of 2·4 and possessing the characters described on page 308 , prevail in the district extending west of Tawaki. Sometimes they occur in mass;

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(2) Naithombothombo Range

A high range of hills, forming the backbone of this part of the island, extends eastward for about five miles from Thawaro and Tawaki. It is named “Naithombothombo” in the Admiralty chart. From it rise two conspicuous peaks, Thawaro Peak (1,573 feet) at its western end, where it overlooks the village of that name, and Mount Thuku (1,288 feet) near its eastern end. West of Thawaro Peak this range is connected with the hills beyond by a saddle 600 feet in height, which is ascended when crossing th

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(3) The Undu Promontory East of Mount Thuku

East of Mount Thuku the hilly backbone of the promontory is of much less elevation. About three miles to the eastward the highest hill is 630 feet, and thence to within a mile or two of Undu Point the hills retain a height of 400 to 500 feet. ( a ) The north coast between Mount Thuku and the coast village of Nuku-ndamu. —On this stretch of coast, about five miles in length, the shore-cliffs are composed of white and pale-yellow, coarse and fine stratified pumice-tuffs, the beds being either hori

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SYNOPSIS

These last three classes are merely provisional. They include the Acid Andesites of Vanua Levu, which are all characterised by the prevalence of rhombic pyroxene amongst the phenocrysts and by its predominance or rather by its usually exclusive occurrence in the groundmass. All the classes are capable of being split up into two sub-classes and four orders as in the case of the third class. The characters of these rocks are given in Chapter XXI . In this class are included those rocks where hornb

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Third Order of the Hypersthene-Augite Andesites.

Remarks. —The same classification is to be employed here as in the case of the two previous orders, but as the rocks in my collection that belong to this order are not numerous (nine sections), it will be sufficient to refer to the general remarks on the order on p. 290 ....

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Fourth Order of the Hypersthene-Augite Andesites.

Remarks. —My sliced specimens (five) are too few for the elaboration of this order to which the classification employed for the other orders is scarcely applicable. This is due to the partial decomposition or imperfect development of the pyroxene of the groundmass. The general characters of the order are given on p. 291 ....

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The Plutonic Rocks.

These rocks are very infrequent and are for the most part hypersthene-gabbros or norites, with a few representatives of diorites [110] without pyroxene. True plutonic rocks did not come under my observation in the western half of the island (west of Lambasa and Savu-savu), those of Mount Thoka-singa in the Ndrandramea district making the nearest approach (see p. 302 ). The localities in which they were found are below enumerated:— The Hypersthene-gabbros. —These rocks also contain monoclinic pyr

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Olivine Class Sub-Class II The Olivine Basalts (Plag, oliv, matr.)

This sub-class includes the plagioclase-olivine-basalts. Although these rocks are not the most numerous of the basic rocks, they are well represented in the island, being in great part confined to the western half, and being especially characteristic of the districts of Wainunu and Solevu and of the mountains of Seatura and Naivaka. It will be seen from the Synopsis that this sub-class is split up into two divisions, according to the relative abundance of the olivine. Many of the rocks are grey

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I. Division of the Olivine-Basalts

Characters. —Abundant olivine. Formula. — Oliv, matr, cop. These rocks are characterised by abundant olivine usually as phenocrysts but sometimes represented in the groundmass. When a basalt presents much of this mineral in an ordinary hand-specimen and displays at least five or six phenocrysts in a slide, it is placed in this division. Olivine-basalts of this character are well exhibited in the hills around Solevu Bay and in the neighbouring Seatovo Range. They are also fairly represented on th

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1. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, cop, non-flu, gran, phen, vitr. Characters. —Abundant olivine. Felspar-lathes of the groundmass not in flow arrangement. Pyroxene of the groundmass granular. Phenocrysts of glassy plagioclase. Description. —Dark-brown or blackish rocks. Sp. gr. 2·88 to 2·93. Phenocrysts of pyroxene occur in fair quantity in addition to those of the olivine and plagioclase. The groundmass displays a plexus of felspars and augite-granules with much magnetite in grains and irregular patches.

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2. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, cop, non-flu, gran, phen, opac. Characters. —Abundant olivine. Felspar-lathes of the groundmass not in flow-arrangement. Pyroxene of the groundmass granular. Phenocrysts of plagioclase opaque white. Description. —Grey compact-looking rocks; sp. gr. 2·83 to 2·9. Interstitial glass scanty. The olivine phenocrysts, which range up to 5 mm. in size, are more or less hematised; and in extreme cases of this alteration, where schiller-planes are formed, the hand-specimen appears t

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3. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, cop, non-flu, gran, non-phen, magn. Characters. —Abundant olivine. Felspar-lathes of the groundmass not in flow-arrangement. Pyroxene of the groundmass granular. No plagioclase phenocrysts. Large phenocrysts of olivine and pyroxene over 2 mm. in size. The species with felspar-lathes ·3 to ·5 mm. long is alone represented....

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4. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, cop, non-flu, gran, non-phen, parv. Characters. —Abundant olivine. In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are not in flow-arrangement and the pyroxene is granular. No plagioclase phenocrysts. Small phenocrysts of olivine and occasionally pyroxene under 2 mm. Description. —A grey coarse-grained rock. Sp. gr. 2·9. It displays abundant small phenocrysts of olivine, all less than a millimetre in size (·2-·8 mm.), which are hematised in the fissures and at the borders. The felspa

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12. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, cop, non-flu, oph, non-phen, parv. Characters. —Olivine abundant. Felspars of the groundmass not in flow-arrangement. Pyroxene of the groundmass ophitic or semi-ophitic. No plagioclase phenocrysts. Small phenocrysts (under 2 mm.) of olivine and occasionally a few of pyroxene. Description. —A dark greenish-brown rock, with sp. gr. 2·91, showing abundant micro-porphyritic olivine in a groundmass consisting of ophitic pale-brown augite inclosing the felspar-lathes, together w

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13. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, cop, flu, gran, phen, vitr. Characters. —Olivine abundant. Felspars of the groundmass in flow-arrangement. Pyroxene of the groundmass granular. Phenocrysts of glassy plagioclase. Description. —Dark grey or dark brown rocks with sp. gr. 2·88 to 2·99. Phenocrysts of olivine, pyroxene, and plagioclase occur in a groundmass showing partially parallel felspar-lathes, abundant pyroxene grains, and fine magnetite, residual glass being scanty or absent. The olivine-phenocrysts do

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14. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, cop, flu, gran, phen, opac. Characters. —Olivine abundant. Felspars of the groundmass in flow-arrangement. Pyroxene of the groundmass granular. Opaque plagioclase phenocrysts. Description. —Dark grey rocks, with sp. gr. 2·9 to 2·93, showing phenocrysts of olivine and pyroxene with opaque whitish phenocrysts of plagioclase in a groundmass of felspar lathes, pyroxene grains, and magnetite, with occasional fine olivine. The olivine phenocrysts, which are sometimes 5 or 6 mm.

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15. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, cop, flu, gran, non-phen, magn. Characters. —Abundant olivine. In the groundmass the felspars are in flow-arrangement and the pyroxene is granular. No plagioclase phenocrysts, but large phenocrysts, over 2 mm., of olivine and pyroxene. Description. —This genus includes the most basic rocks represented in my collection. They are compact heavy blackish rocks with sp. gr. 3 to 3·1, and display large porphyritic crystals of olivine and pyroxene often 3 or 4 mm. in size. The ol

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16. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, cop, flu, gran, non-phen, parv. Characters. —Abundant olivine. In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are in flow arrangement and the pyroxene is granular. There are no plagioclase phenocrysts; but there are numerous small phenocrysts, under 2 mm. in size, of olivine and occasionally a few of pyroxene....

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2. Division of the Olivine-Basalts

Characters. —Scanty olivine. Formula. — Oliv, matr, pauc....

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25. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, pauc, non-flu, gran, phen, vitr. Characters. —Olivine scanty. Felspars (lathes and prisms) of the groundmass not in flow-arrangement. Pyroxene of the groundmass granular. Glassy plagioclase phenocrysts. Description. —About two-thirds of these rocks have a common facies, being closely similar in appearance, brownish-black in colour, and with spec. grav. usually between 2·84 and 2·92. They belong to the species with the felspar-lathes ·1 to ·2 mm. in length. They are essenti

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26. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, pauc, non-flu, gran, phen, opac. Characters. —Olivine scanty. In the groundmass the felspar-lathes and prisms are not in flow-arrangement and the pyroxene is granular. The plagioclase phenocrysts are opaque. Description. —Dark grey porphyritic rocks, which, from the opacity of the felspar phenocrysts, look like porphyrites. They are not very frequent and occur mostly on the northern slopes of Mount Seatura. Two different types occur in my collection which may be regarded a

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33. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, pauc, non-flu, oph, phen, vitr. Characters. —Olivine scanty. In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are not in flow-arrangement and the pyroxene is ophitic or semi-ophitic. Plagioclase phenocrysts glassy. Description. —These brownish-black rocks are all of the semi-ophitic type. Although no ophitic “plates” occur in the slide, the augites of the groundmass have no longer the granular form, but are large, ·08-·1 mm. in size, and tend to invest the felspar-lathes. The specific

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37. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, pauc, flu, gran, phen, vitr. Characters. —Olivine scanty. In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are in flow-arrangement and the pyroxene is granular. Glassy plagioclase phenocrysts. Description. —Brownish-black rocks which cannot be distinguished, except in the flow-arrangement of the felspars of the groundmass, from those described under genus 25. Like them they enter into the formation of the basaltic plains of Sarawanga and Mbua and elsewhere. Most of the rocks of this g

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38. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, pauc, flu, gran, phen, opac. Characters. —Olivine scanty. In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are in flow-arrangement and the pyroxene is granular. Opaque plagioclase phenocrysts. Description. —Grey rocks, sp. gr. 2·78 to 2·83, showing small opaque porphyritic crystals of plagioclase with a few phenocrysts of olivine and pyroxene in a groundmass of parallel felspar-lathes, augite granules, and magnetite, with very scanty, if any, interstitial glass.... The plagioclase phe

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40. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, pauc, flu, gran, non-phen, parv. Characters. —Olivine scanty. In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are in flow-arrangement and the pyroxene is granular. No plagioclase phenocrysts; but there are a few small phenocrysts of olivine and sometimes of pyroxene under 2 mm. in size. Description. —Compact-looking non-porphyritic blackish-brown rocks, sp. gr. about 2·9. Occasionally a little vesicular. For the most part dyke-rocks. In the slide are displayed a few small phenocrysts

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44. Genus of the Olivine-Basalts

Formula. — Oliv, matr, pauc, flu, prism, non-phen, parv. Characters. —Olivine scanty. In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are in flow-arrangement and the pyroxene is in great part prismatic. There are no phenocrysts of plagioclase; but there are a few small phenocrysts of olivine and sometimes of pyroxene, less than 2 mm. in size. Description. —A dark grey compactish rock; sp. gr. 2·9; showing a little macroscopic olivine; forming a dyke in the tuffs on the summit of the hill of Vatui (p. 54 ).

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Augite Class Sub-class II Augite-Andesites including the Basaltic Andesites(Plag, aug, matr.)

This sub-class, which comprises 40 per cent. of the volcanic rocks, is characterised by the absence of olivine on the one hand, and by the rarity or absence of rhombic pyroxene on the other. On the basic side it shades into the olivine-basalts through the basaltic andesites, and on the acid side by intermediate stages into the hypersthene augite andesites; and for these reasons it is not always possible to draw a sharp line of distinction. In cases where a hand-specimen displays no macroscopic o

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I. Granular Sub-order (Augite-Andesites)

Formula. — Aug, matr, non-flu, gran....

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1. Genus of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, non-flu, gran, phen, vitr. Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar-lathes and prisms are not in flow-arrangement and the augite is granular. Phenocrysts of glassy plagioclase. Description. —These rocks frequently form dykes; and it is probable that most of the instances where the nature of the exposure could not be ascertained also fall into this category. They are dark-brown or blackish, and their sp. gr. ranges, except in the semi-vitreous rocks, from 2·7 to 2·83. They

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2. Genus of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, non-flu, gran, phen, opac. Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar-lathes and prisms are not in flow-arrangement and the augite is granular. Opaque plagioclase phenocrysts. Description. —This genus may be divided into two groups according to the size of the plagioclase phenocrysts, the first “porphyritic,” where they average 3 mm. and over, the second “non-porphyritic,” where they are smaller than 3 mm., usually not over 2 mm. The former would include some of the “porphy

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4. Genus of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, non-flu, gran, non-phen, parv. Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar-lathes and prisms are not in flow-arrangement and the augite is granular. There are no plagioclase phenocrysts, and those of augite when present are small (under 2 mm.). Description. —Two groups of these rocks occur in my collection. In the one there are vesicular and scoriaceous rocks forming dykes near Nukunase and near the village of Ndriti. They display a plexus of felspar-lathes with abundant smo

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II Prismatic Sub-Order of the Augite-Andesites wherethe Felspar-lathes are not in Flow-arrangement

Formula. — Aug, matr, non-flu, prism. The augite-andesites, which display in the groundmass a plexus of felspar-lathes and much prismatic pyroxene, are not frequent in my collection. About half of the specimens belong to agglomerates, whilst the rest are of the massive type, none apparently being obtained from dykes. They admit of the same classification as that generally adopted for the “granular” sub-orders; and it must be not forgotten that granular pyroxene also occurs but is not predominant

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6. Genus of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, non-flu, prism, phen, opac. Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are not in flow-arrangement and the augite is for the most part prismatic. The plagioclase phenocrysts are opaque. Description. —Light and dark grey rocks displaying abundant opaque plagioclase phenocrysts not exceeding 2·5 mm. They are somewhat altered, one of the specimens having a sp. gr. of 2·68. In the section they exhibit phenocrysts of plagioclase, and occasionally of augite in a groundmass

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III Ophitic Sub-order of the Augite-Andesites with theFelspars of the Groundmass not in Flow-arrangement.

Formula. — Aug, matr, non-flu, oph. These rocks form generally ancient flows. They are for the most part semi-ophitic, large ophitic “plates” being uncommon....

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9. Genus of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, non-flu, oph, phen, vitr. Characters. —The felspar-lathes and prisms of the groundmass are not in flow-arrangement. The augite of the groundmass is ophitic or semi-ophitic. Glassy plagioclase phenocrysts. This genus may be divided into two sub-genera,...

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A. Porphyritic Sub-genus

Description. —Coarse-looking brownish-black porphyritic rocks displaying large plagioclase crystals that often show a play of colours. Their sp. gr. is about 2·8. None of the rocks in my collection are vesicular. On account of the considerable porphyritic development of the plagioclase, the groundmass is relatively diminished, the large phenocrysts occupying about a third of the mass. They form ancient basaltic flows more especially in the vicinity of the isolated hills and mountains of acid and

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B. Non-porphyritic Sub-genus

Description. —Blackish-brown semi-ophitic rocks, sp. gr. 2·74-2·77, frequently of doleritic texture and showing a few small macroscopic plagioclase phenocrysts. They are sometimes vesicular, and form old flows in a few localities, as in the vicinity of Natua in the eastern part of the Ndreketi plains and in the coast district between Lekutu and Wailea Bay. They display in the slide small plagioclase phenocrysts, often abundant, in a groundmass exhibiting a loose plexus of large lathe-shaped fels

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10. Genus of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, non-flu, oph, phen, opac. Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar-lathes and prisms are not in flow-arrangement and the augite is ophitic or semi-ophitic. The plagioclase phenocrysts are opaque. This genus may be divided into two sub-genera, porphyritic and non-porphyritic, according to the average size of the plagioclase phenocrysts, whether above or below 3 mm. A. Porphyritic Sub-genus. —This is represented by a light grey porphyritic rock, with sp. gr. 2·75, from the

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12. Genus of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, non-flu, oph, non-phen, parv. Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar lathes and prisms are not in flow-arrangement and the augite is ophitic or semi-ophitic. No plagioclase phenocrysts. Augite phenocrysts when present less than 2 mm. in size. Description. —These rocks come near to the non-porphyritic group of genus 9; but differ in the absence or rarity of plagioclase phenocrysts, in their more frequently vesicular and scoriaceous character, and in the fresher condition

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4. Granular Sub-order of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, flu, gran....

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13. Genus

Formula. — Aug, matr, flu, gran, phen, vitr. Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar-lathes or prisms are in flow-arrangement and the augite is granular. The plagioclase phenocrysts are glassy. Description. —This genus readily splits up into two sub-genera, the non-porphyritic, where the plagioclase phenocrysts are less than 3 mm. in size, and the porphyritic where they are larger. 1. Non-Porphyritic Sub-genus. —Dark-brown or blackish rocks displaying small plagioclase phenocrysts, usually on

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14. Genus of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, flu, gran, phen, opac . Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are in flow-arrangement and the augite is granular. The plagioclase phenocrysts are opaque. Description. —Only two rocks are referred to this genus. One which is dark grey with a specific gravity of 2·72 is exposed in the gorge of the Mbutu-mbutu River below the falls of Na Savu. Flow-arrangement is displayed both by the felspar phenocrysts and lathes. The phenocrysts, 2 to 3 mm. in size, owe their op

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16. Genus of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, flu, gran, non-phen, parv . Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are in flow-arrangement and the augite is granular. Plagioclase phenocrysts are absent, or if present very scanty and not usually over 1 mm. in size. When present the augite phenocrysts are under 2 mm. Description. —This is a very extensive genus, admitting considerable variation and including most of the aphanitic augite-andesites, where the felspar-lathes are as a rule very small (under ·1 mm. i

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5. Sub-order, Prismatic, of the Augite-Andesites

(Felspar-lathes in flow-arrangement. Aug, matr, flu, prism .) This sub-order includes dark-brown or blackish semi-vitreous rocks, all but one of which belong to the genus below described. Since the exception (which belongs to genus 17 of the synopsis) differs only in the presence of plagioclase phenocrysts, its separate description is not needed....

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20. Genus of the Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Aug, matr, flu, prism, non-phen, parv. Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are in flow-arrangement, and the augite is prismatic. Plagioclase phenocrysts are absent or are very small and scanty, and pyroxene phenocrysts when present do not exceed 2 mm. in size. Description. —These dark semi-vitreous rocks occur in agglomerates and as “necks” and dykes, and are at times scoriaceous. They are usually compact and aphanitic, showing few if any plagioclase phenocrysts and havi

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6. Sub-order, Ophitic, of the Augite-Andesites

(Felspar-lathes in flow-arrangement. Aug, matr, flu, oph. ) 21. Genus of the Augite-Andesites Formula. — Aug, matr, flu, oph, phen, vitr. Characters. —In the groundmass the felspar-lathes are in flow-arrangement and the augite is ophitic or semi-ophitic. Glassy plagioclase phenocrysts. Description. —Dark rocks, sp. gr. 2·76-2·8, forming ancient flows and displaying at times a columnar structure as at Yanutha Point (page 123 ). The ophitic character is only in part developed, which may be connect

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Hypersthene-Augite Class II. Sub-Class. Hypersthene-Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Plag, hypersth-aug, matr. Characters. —The pyroxene phenocrysts usually are represented by separate crystals of the monoclinic as well as the rhombic type, and the two forms are often associated in the same crystal. The monoclinic form prevails in the groundmass in most cases. Remarks. —It is not possible to draw a sharp line between the augite and the hypersthene-augite-andesites; but where two or three phenocrysts of the rhombic type occur in a slide the rock may be placed in this d

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1 Sub-Order, Granular, of the Hypersthene-Augite-Andesites

Formula .— Hypersth-aug, matr, non-flu, gran. Nearly all of the rocks of this sub-order that are represented in my collection belong to the genus (1) with phenocrysts of glassy plagioclase. They vary considerably in appearance and in colour (black to grey), and occur under very different conditions, as in “necks,” old flows, large intrusive masses, dykes, agglomerates, &amp;c. Their specific gravity has rather a wide range according to the degree of basicity. In the heavier rocks where the r

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2. Sub-order, Prismatic, of the Hypersthene-Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Hypersth-aug, matr, non-flu, prism. This sub-order includes rocks varying much in appearance, but all alike in the presence of prismatic pyroxene in the groundmass and in the absence of flow-arrangement of the felspar-lathes. They belong to the two genera, with glassy and opaque plagioclase phenocrysts. These crystals are not usually over 2 mm. in size and are of medium andesine (15°-20°). The pyroxene phenocrysts are small and may be entirely of monoclinic or of rhombic pyroxene, or

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13. Genus

Formula. — Hypersth-aug, matr, flu, gran, phen, vitr. Characters. —Glassy plagioclase phenocrysts. Description. —This is a group of rocks that comes near the basaltic andesites represented in genera 1 and 13 of the augite sub-class; and to the more basic kinds the terms of basaltic andesite is equally applicable. These rocks, however, differ in the prevalence of rhombic pyroxene, which occurs as phenocrysts, but always accompanied by monoclinic pyroxene, whether as separate crystals or as inter-

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5. Sub-order, Prismatic, of the Hypersthene-Augite-Andesites

Formula. —Hypersth-aug, matr, flu, prism. The rocks of this sub-order that are represented in my collection admit easily of a general description, and since the diagnoses of the genera are given in the Synopsis, there will be no need to separately describe each genus. Almost without exception these rocks form a constituent of agglomerates in various parts of the island; and they occur in this condition in some of the highest mountains, as Mariko, Thambeyu, and Koro-mbasanga. The exception refers

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Third Order, Orthophyric, of the Hypersthene-Augite-Andesites

Formula. — Hypersth-aug, matr, orth. Characters. —Felspars of the groundmass short and broad. Since the material is insufficient for the separate description of each genus, a general account of the order is alone given. These rocks are often represented in agglomerates or they occur as large blocks, either lying on the surface or imbedded in tuffs. Many of them are somewhat altered. They are for the most part dark grey dull-looking rocks, with a specific gravity of 2·7 to 2·8, showing macroscopi

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Fourth Order, Felsitic, of the Hypersthene-Augite Andesites

Formula. — Hypersth-aug, matr, fels. Characters. —The groundmass presents a rudely granular appearance or a blurred mosaic. This order is capable of subdivision, as in the other orders of the hypersthene-augite-andesites (see Synopsis, page 247 ); but since it is only represented by six of my rock-sections, I will confine the description to the general characters. These rocks are dark-grey, sometimes granitoid in appearance, with specific gravity 2·65 to 2·75. They usually show some alteration,

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Acid Andesites

These rocks were first described by Wichmann [112] from specimens obtained by Kleinschmidt from the mountain of Mbuke Levu in Kandavu. These Kandavu rocks had a microfelsitic base, the porphyritic brown hornblende having usually black borders in which a change into epidote was observed. Rhombic pyroxene was only noted as an occasional constituent of a rock from Ono. Renard [113] described these rocks from the vicinity of Ngaloa Harbour in Kandavu and remarked that bronzite was of more common occ

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The Acid-Andesites of Vanua Levu

These rocks compose in mass numerous isolated hills that rise up abruptly in the interior of the central portion of the island. Such hills, or mountains, as they might be often termed, usually attain a height of from 700 to 1200 feet above the surrounding country, and possess precipitous slopes and frequently perpendicular cliff-faces. In the geological description of the island, I have referred in detail to these mountains, when speaking of Na Raro, Vatu Kaisia, Ndrandramea, Ngaingai, etc.; and

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Sub-Class Hypersthene-Andesites

These are dark and light grey rocks, sometimes granitoid in appearance. They pass on the one hand into the hypersthene-augite-andesites before described and on the other into the hornblende hypersthene-andesites to be subsequently dealt with. From the former they are distinguished by the great predominance of rhombic pyroxene both as phenocrysts and in the groundmass; whilst from the latter they are separated by the absence of brown hornblende or its pseudomorphs. These rocks are found in the Nd

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Sub-Class Hornblende-Hypersthene-Andesites

This is an extensive group which includes the rocks forming several of the hills in the Ndrandramea district as well as the isolated peaks of Na Raro, Vatu Kaisia, etc. It passes on the one side into the Hypersthene-Andesites before described and on the other into the Hornblende-Hypersthene-Quartz-Andesites, the Dacites of this island. Of the four orders established in the Synopsis (page 236 ) according to the general method there adopted, the first, where the groundmass exhibits felspar-lathes

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Second Order of the Hornblende-Hypersthene-Andesites

This order is only represented by three rocks, all of which belong to the prismatic sub-order where the pyroxene of the groundmass is prismatic and not granular. Two of these rocks are very similar in appearance and character, though coming from different localities on the opposite sides of Savu-savu Bay, one from the agglomerate of Vatu-ndamu in the Kumbulau peninsula (page 91 ), the other from an intrusive mass in the vicinity of Urata (page 184 ). They are dark grey, with specific gravity 2·6

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Third Order of the Hornblende-Hypersthene-Andesites

These rocks occur generally as agglomerates and are more particularly characteristic of the district between the Mariko Range and the Salt Lake. They belong for the most part to the prismatic sub-order of the group and to the section with plagioclase phenocrysts, and fall naturally into two divisions corresponding to the two genera with glassy and opaque phenocrysts. The last named would be regarded by some as porphyrites. The specific gravity of the specimens ranges from 2·52 to 2·7. The plagio

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Fourth Order of the Hornblende-Hypersthene-Andesites

These are light and dark grey rocks showing usually macroscopic pyroxene and hornblende. They vary considerably in appearance from the open-textured rock to that with a granitoid coarsely crystalline aspect. They generally carry brown hornblende phenocrysts, but frequently these are represented by pseudomorphs; and they all have a felsitic groundmass. They are only separated by the absence of porphyritic quartz from the dacites of Vanua Levu, which are treated in the next sub-class. They present

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Sub-Class Quartz-Hornblende-Hypersthene-Andesites or Dacites

These rocks are infrequent. They compose in mass the adjacent mountains of Ngaingai and Wawa Levu in the Ndrandramea district, and appear also on the lower slopes of the neighbouring mountain of Navuningumu. They differ chiefly from the hornblende-hypersthene-andesites in the presence of porphyritic quartz, which, however, is not as a rule abundant. In their general origin and affinities and in their mode of occurrence they cannot be separated from the two sub-classes of hypersthene-andesites an

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Tabular Comparison of the Acid Andesites of Vanua Levu.

Note. —The figures in the columns headed “Felsitic” and “Rhombic” refer to the size in millimetres of the felsitic “grain” and the larger pyroxene prisms. Note. —The figures in the columns headed “Felsitic” and “Rhombic” refer to the size in millimetres of the felsitic “grain” and the larger pyroxene prisms. Note on the Rhombic Pyroxene of the three foregoing sub-classes of the Acid Andesites. —The term “hypersthene” has been here used as a convenient expression equivalent to “rhombic pyroxene.”

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Oligoclase-Trachytes

The term “trachyte” is here applied in a general sense to a group of light-grey intrusive acid rocks, having a specific gravity when compact of 2·4 to 2·45 and showing phenocrysts of glassy felspar, but not of quartz. These rocks, which are especially characteristic of the districts around Tawaki and Mount Thuku and of the Wainikoro sea-border, are often open-textured and sometimes a little vesicular, whilst several of them exhibit some degree of alteration in the groundmass. In all cases they a

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Quartz Porphyries and Rhyolitic Rocks

Wichmann when he wrote in 1882 that no quartz-bearing younger eruptive rocks had hitherto been observed either in Fiji or in the South Sea Islands generally, had apparently overlooked Dana’s observations in the Fijian group. The American geologist [124] refers to a rock found on the north-east shores of Vanua Levu which exhibited in a greenish base thickly disseminated crystals of quartz (bipyramidal dodecahedrons, 1/8 of an inch in diameter) and glassy felspar, together with a few sphene crysta

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Basic Pitchstone and Basic Glass

It is not possible to draw a sharp distinction between the pitchstone and the purely vitreous condition of these glasses. The following remarks will therefore apply to both. Regarded as components of the pitchstone-tuffs and palagonite-tuffs these rocks have a very extensive distribution in the island; but in the massive state they are hardly ever to be found, whilst in the form of agglomerates they are only frequent in certain localities, as in the cliffs of the Korotini Bluff, in the vicinity

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The Volcanic Agglomerates

In this place my remarks will be chiefly confined to a summary of some of the leading features of these formations. The agglomerates, which pass by all gradations through the tuff-agglomerates into the submarine tuffs, rank amongst the most prevalent and the most conspicuous of the rocks exposed at the surface in this island. Their lithological characters vary according to the type of the massive rocks of the district. Thus in the Ndrandramea district the blocks are composed of the prevailing ac

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The Upraised Coral Limestones

These reef-limestones are scantily represented in the island, though one can scarcely doubt that they were once far more extensive, having been largely stripped off by the denuding agencies. They are mostly found on the south coast between Naindi Bay and Fawn Harbour, and rarely extend to heights greater than 20 or 30 feet above the sea, usually composing the sea cliffs and not occurring as a rule inland. Massive corals are often to be seen imbedded in their position of growth, as described in C

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Shelly and Foraminiferal Limestones

These rocks are composed partly of reef-debris, partly of volcanic detritus, and partly of the tests of foraminifera (usually bottom forms), fragments of lamellibranchiate and gasteropod shells, together with those of pteropods, and other organic remains. Occasionally separate valves of the genera “Cardium” and “Ostraea” are inclosed in the limestone. These rocks have been evidently formed in rather shallow water. In places they overlie palagonite-tuffs and clays, also foraminiferal. Similar lim

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Pteropod-ooze Rocks

These rocks are bluish-grey when not exposed; but through the hydration accompanying exposure they become much lighter in colour. They are crowded with pteropod shells, and contain also small gasteropod and lamellibranchiate shells together with tests of foraminifera both microscopic and macroscopic. They yield between 30 and 40 per cent. of carbonate of lime, the residue being made up of disintegrated palagonitic debris and fine clayey material derived from the same source, together with a fair

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Foraminiferous Volcanic Mud-rocks

These deposits, which represent the “volcanic muds” forming around the coasts of volcanic islands, are more or less consolidated clay-rocks. They contain in varying numbers the tests of foraminifera with occasionally pteropod-shells. The former are usually minute and of the “Globigerina” type; but in some rocks larger bottom-forms prevail. The original colour of these deposits is bluish-grey, but as generally displayed they are pale-brown and considerably affected by hydration and are known as “

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Altered Volcanic Mud-rocks

This group includes compact hard foraminiferous usually dark-brown rocks, which exhibit evidence of alteration in their induration, in the presence of pyrites, and in the chalcedonic quartz filling fine cracks in the rock-mass. Occasionally special types of alteration occur, one of which will be referred to in the description of some of the rocks given below. The proportion of carbonate of lime is generally small; but sometimes it amounts to 10 per cent. or more. They admit of being examined in

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Samples of the Altered Volcanic Mud-rocks

A. From between 400 and 500 feet above the sea on the south slope of the Mariko Range.... The characters and mode of occurrence of this rock are described on page 187 . B. From an elevation of 1,100 feet on the south slope of the Korotini Range.... The description of the locality will be found on page 160 . This rock is hard and compact and looks like an altered basic rock showing a few minute specks of pyrites. It is composed of fine palagonitic debris, and small fragments of semi-vitreous basi

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Submarine Basic Tuffs of Mixed Composition

These tuffs, which are composed not only of palagonitic materials but also of the fine detritus of usually semi-vitreous basic rocks, rank first in frequency amongst the volcanic sedimentary deposits of the island. In their character they pass on the one hand into the foraminiferous volcanic mud-rocks or clay rocks and on the other into the tuff-breccias and tuff-agglomerates. We have here a series beginning with the agglomerate and ending with the clay that represents in a general sense the suc

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Samples of the Submarine Basic Tuffs of Mixed Composition

A. As examples of the non-fossiliferous tuffs where the palagonite constituents do not predominate, I will take those exposed in beds in the coast cliffs and in the low hills in the vicinity of Na Tokalau in the Kumbulau peninsula (page 90 ). They are grey in colour and have the texture of a sandstone, being more or less compacted and showing no effervescence with an acid. They are composed of fragments of basic rocks and of minerals, varying in size from ·5 to 1 mm., in a scanty matrix made up

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Altered Basic Tuffs of Mixed Composition

These form a group of hard compact rocks, the fragmental character of which is not always apparent in hand-specimens, microscopical examination of thin sections being usually required for the determination of their true nature. They are commonly exposed on the southern flanks of the Korotini Range at the back of Vatu-kawa and Nukumbolo. They are composed of compacted fragments, varying in different localities from 1 to 5 or 6 mm. in size, of a variety of semi-vitreous basic rocks, the matrix bei

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Submarine Basic Pumice Tuffs

These deposits, which, however, are not of frequent occurrence, are interstratified with volcanic mud-rocks in certain localities, as at the Mbenutha Cliffs (p. 110 ), and in the vicinity of the hill of Korolevu (p. 47 ). They indicate periods of volcanic activity during the deposition of the foraminiferous muds, with which they are associated, when the fine materials ejected from sub-aerial vents fell into the seas around. Such tuffs are more or less compact and usually fine in texture. When th

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“Crush-Tuffs” formed of Basic Glass

This is a remarkable group of compacted tuff-like rocks which as hand-specimens would be generally regarded as pitchstone-tuffs. Their detrital origin is, however, often very doubtful. They are composed of fragments of basic glass, carrying plagioclase phenocrysts, with the interspaces occupied by palagonite and by the finer debris of the glass and felspar. The larger glass fragments, which vary in different rocks from 1 or 2 to 4 or 5 mm. in size, have been crushed in situ , the broken portions

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Coarse Zeolitic Palagonite-tuffs

These deposits represent coarse kinds of the submarine tuffs of basic glass, in which the palagonitic change is far advanced, and where zeolites and at times secondary calcite have been produced in abundance as a result of the alteration. They present themselves in the mass as mottled grey rocks which when examined in thin sections are seen to be composed in great part of fragments of more or less palagonitised vacuolar basic glass, whilst zeolites are extensively developed in numerous irregular

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Chocolate-coloured Foraminiferous Palagonite-marls

We have here hard, somewhat calcareous, clay-rocks which consist in great part (nine-tenths) of fine palagonite debris with some fragments of minerals and a little fine detritus of semi-vitreous basic rocks. Some hand-specimens would be taken for pure palagonite; but the fragmental nature appears at once in the slide. This is especially the case with a rock exposed in a stream-course near Rewa on the shores of Savu-savu Bay (see page 95 ). The materials composing them are exceedingly fine, the l

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Acid Pumice Tuffs

The general characters of these deposits are described on pages 10 , 218 , 220 , 222 , 223 , 231 , 233 , &amp;c. Such tuffs are restricted to the north-east part of the island east of Lambasa and Tawaki, and are well displayed in the coast cliffs. They are pale yellow or whitish, and are usually non-calcareous. They are composed of the debris of a vacuolar and fibrillar isotropic glass, nearly colourless and in some localities altered. Small crystals of quartz and of glassy felspar with bits

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Note on the type of basalt found associated with palagonite.

The type is characterised, it would appear, rather by its structural features than by its mineral composition. It is the basalt of ophitic or semi-ophitic habit that would seem to be usually associated with palagonite; and since this habit is as a rule to be found where the groundmass displays large felspar-lathes in plexus arrangement, coarse augites, and at least a fair amount of smoky glass, it follows that a hemi-crystalline, ophitic or semi-ophitic, doleritic basalt is the type to be associ

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Note on the changes produced through the hydration of palagonite.

Most of that which is detailed below is not according to my views palagonitisation, but the effect of hydration in the disintegration of this material. The initial molecular condition and the other characters which represent potentially the palagonitic change are not connected with hydration; but are concerned with the causes before explained that led to the formation of a basic glass of such an unstable constitution. Indeed, there is good reason to believe that the changes to be now described m

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CHAPTER XXV SILICIFIED CORALS AND FLINTS

Silicified corals, together with siliceous minerals (quartz, chalcedony, jasper, &amp;c.) and siliceous concretions are evidently widely distributed in these islands. Kleinschmidt in his journal refers to large blocks of flint on the island of Ono, from which the natives used to obtain their musket-flints, [133] and he collected from this island as well as from Viti Levu, Ovalau, &amp;c., numerous specimens of these and other siliceous minerals and rocks, such as hornstone, chalcedony an

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CHAPTER XXVI MAGNETIC ROCKS

The literature on the subject of the magnetism of rocks is very extensive, [140] and even if I was capable of doing so, any attempt to deal generally with this complicated phenomenon would be out of place here. Zirkel in his characteristically thorough fashion has reviewed the subject in his general work on petrography, but since the date of the last publication of that book, 1893-94, the literature has been much increased and the subject has from time to time been opened up in scientific period

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CHAPTER XXVII SOME CONCLUSIONS AND THEIR BEARINGS

Vanua Levu is a composite island built up during a long period of emergence, that began probably in the later Tertiary period, by the union of a number of large and small islands of volcanic formation representing the products of submarine eruptions. It differs in this respect from Viti Levu which is much more massive in its profile and possesses a greater proportion of plutonic rocks. When, however, Viti Levu comes to be systematically examined, it is likely that traces of its composite origin

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APPENDIX

Note on the Stone-Axes. —Two of these polished stone-axes from a collection made in Vanua Levu were selected for sections. One is light-green and smooth. The other has a very different appearance, being blackish and rather rough, its smooth surface having been apparently lost by lying in a stream-course or in wet ground for a long period. Both, however, are made of the same type of basaltic rock, the specific gravity in one case being 2·93, in the other 2·97. It is an aphanitic basalt with scant

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OBSERVATIONS OF A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC BETWEEN 1896 AND 1899

Selala (Vanua Levu, Fiji) ( 1 ⁄ 3 ). Fruits with seedlings nearly ready to fall from the tree of Rhizophora mangle (shortest) and Rhizophora mucronata (longest). From Vanua Levu, Fiji. ( 1 ⁄ 4 of the true length.) Rhizophora mangle (Vanua Levu, Fiji) ( 1 ⁄ 4 ). Rhizophora mucronata (Vanua Levu, Fiji) ( 1 ⁄ 5 )....

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PREFACE

Although this volume contains a great amount of original material, I am largely indebted to the labours of my predecessors for its present form; and a scheme that at first was limited only to my own observations in the Pacific has gradually extended itself to the general subject of plant-dispersal. The farther I proceeded in my work the more I realised that the floras of the Pacific islands are of most interest in their connections, and that the problems affecting them are problems concerning th

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LIST OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES QUOTED IN THIS VOLUME,WITH AN ENUMERATION OF THE AUTHOR’S BOTANICAL PAPERS

Burkill, I. H. , “The Flora of Vavau, one of the Tonga Islands,” Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. xxxv., Botany, 1901. Cheeseman, T. F. , “The Flora of Rarotonga,” Transactions of the Linnean Society, 2nd Ser., Botany, vol. vi., part 6, 1903. Drake del Castillo, E. , “Flore de la Polynésie Française,” Paris, 1893. “Remarques sur la Flore de la Polynésie” (Mémoire couronné par l’Académie des Sciences), Paris, 1890. Eggers, Baron H. von , “Die Manglares in Ecuador,” Botanisches Centralblatt, N

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

The study of insular floras.—Their investigation in this work from the standpoint of dispersal.—The significance of plant-distribution in the Pacific.—The problems connected with the mountain-flora of Hawaii.—The persistence of dispersing agencies at the coast, their partial suspension on the mountain-top, their more or less complete suspension in the forest, and the effect on the endemic character of plants.—The connection between the endemism of birds and plants.—The relative antiquity of plan

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CHAPTER II THE FLORAS OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS FROM THE STANDPOINTOF DISPERSAL BY CURRENTS

The initial experiment.—The proportion of littoral plants.—The two great principles of buoyancy.—The investigations of Professor Schimper.—The investigations of the author.—The great sorting process of the ages.—Preliminary results of the inquiry into the buoyancy of seeds and fruits. In the previous introductory chapter some of the numerous questions affecting insular floras were briefly referred to. I will now ask my reader, if he has had the patience to read it, to consign that chapter for th

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CHAPTER III THE LESSON OF THE BRITISH FLORA

Results of observations on the buoyancy of over 300 British plants.—The small proportion of plants with buoyant seeds or seedvessels.—Their station by the water-side.—The great sifting experiment of the ages.—Summary. The singular relation between station and seed-buoyancy that exists in an island of the tropical Pacific, such for instance as Vanua Levu, Tahiti, or Hawaii, would lose much of its significance if it stood alone in the economy of plant-life. It must be true not only of tropical flo

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CHAPTER IV THE LESSON OF THE BRITISH FLORA (continued)

The choice of station of the water-side plant possessing buoyant seeds or seedvessels.—Determined by its fitness or unfitness for living in physiologically dry stations.—In the internal organisation of a plant lies the first determining influence of station.—The grouping of the British strand-plants.—Whilst the Xerophyte with buoyant seed or fruit finds its station at the coast, the Hygrophyte similarly endowed makes its home at the river or pond side.—The grouping of the plants of the river and

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The Fijian Strand-flora THE INLAND EXTENSION OF THE BEACH PLANTS

Viewed from the old standpoint of “station,” where one would distinguish sharply between the coast and the inland plants, the Fijian strand-flora exhibits a number of inconsistencies, all at first sight extremely puzzling. When, however, we regard their xerophilous character and reflect that this habit, and not mere fitness for growing at the coast, is the primary determining factor of their station, much that is strange appears normal and plain. Let me refer in this connection to the impression

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THE GROUPING OF THE FIJIAN LITTORAL PLANTS.

The littoral plants readily divide themselves into three principal groups as concerning their station, namely: ( a ) The “beach-formation,” typically exhibited on the whitish calcareous beaches of reef-bound coasts. ( b ) The “mangrove-formation,” found at intervals all along the coasts, but most fully developed at the estuaries, and for the most part occupying flats regularly overflown by the tide. ( c ) The “intermediate formation,” comprising the plants of the tracts between the beach and the

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THE MODES OF DISPERSAL OF THE FIJIAN STRAND-PLANTS.

The predominant influence of the currents having been already established, there remains for consideration the distribution of the floating capacity of the seeds or fruits among the different formations. One can say that almost without exception the seeds or fruits or seedlings of the mangrove and intermediate formations float for long periods. In the case of some of the true mangroves, as in Rhizophora and in Bruguiera, where germination takes place on the tree, it is the seedling that floats,

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Summary of the Chapter.

(1) The Tahitian region possesses most of the plants that frequent the sandy beaches of the Pacific islands. (2) But it lacks the mangroves and the associated plants of the mangrove-swamp. (3) It also wants many of the plants that grow in the vicinity of such swamps. (4) But since the plants last-mentioned often possess fruits or seeds capable of being carried great distances by the currents, their absence is to be attributed to the necessary conditions being lacking on account of the failure of

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CHAPTER VII THE HAWAIIAN STRAND-FLORA

Its poverty.—Its negative features.—Their explanation.—The subordinate part taken by the currents.—The Oregon drift.—The inland extension of the beach plants.—Summary. Compared with the rich strand-flora of Fiji, that of Hawaii presents but a sorry aspect. In the number of species (30) it does not amount to half; whilst it lacks the great mangrove-formation and the luxuriant vegetation accompanying it that gives so much character to the shores and estuaries of Fiji. Strangely enough, it is also

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Summary of the Chapter.

( a ) Since the effective operations of the currents are limited to the shore-plants with buoyant seeds or fruits, such plants forming but a small proportion of any flora, it must be acknowledged that, numerically speaking, the results of the dispersing-agency of the currents on plant-distribution in general are but slight. ( b ) Yet the importance of the subject is by no means to be measured by a numerical scale of results, a line of inquiry being here opened up leading to fields of investigati

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Summary of the Chapter.

( a ) The tendency of the floating seed or fruit to germinate in the brackish water of tropical estuaries is especially characteristic of the plants of the mangrove-swamp and their vicinity; but with those of the beach trees that occur in the river-drift it is rarely if at all to be observed. ( b ) From the wide distribution of plants of the mangrove-formation it is evident that this readiness of the floating seed or fruit to germinate is not prejudicial to the dispersal of the species. ( c ) It

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Summary of the Chapter.

( a ) The great majority of seeds and seedvessels (quite 80 per cent.) are much heavier than sea-water, but a noticeable proportion are considerably lighter than fresh water, whilst those with a specific weight near that of fresh water or of sea-water are very few. ( b ) The buoyancy of seed and fruit has no direct relation to the density of sea-water, and even if the ocean was deprived of all its dissolved salts, the agency of the dispersal of plants by currents would not be materially affected

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CHAPTER XI ADAPTATION AND MEANS OF DISPERSAL

Nature has never concerned herself directly with providing means of dispersal.—Fleshy fruits not made to be eaten.—Nor “sticky” seeds to adhere to plumage.—Nor prickly fruits to entangle themselves in fur and feathers.—The dispersal of seeds a blind result of the struggle between the intruding Evolutionary power and the controlling influence of Adaptation. Before entering into a discussion of the causes of the floating powers of seeds, it is necessary that I should state my general position on t

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The First Group.

Of the first group, where the floating power is due to the unoccupied space in the cavity of the seed or fruit, the Convolvulaceæ offer the most typical examples. Here as a rule the crumpled embryo fills the seed-cavity more or less incompletely; and it is on the relative size of the unoccupied space that the sinking or floating of the seed depends. In those plants where the seed sinks the seed-cavity may be almost filled, as in Ipomœa tuberculata, or densely packed, as in Ipomœa pentaphylla, an

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EXPLANATION OF THE DIAGRAMS ILLUSTRATING THE CAUSES OF SEED-BUOYANCY

1. Entada scandens (natural size): ( a ), the shell; ( b ), the kernel; ( c ), the intercotyledonary cavity. The shell consists of three coats—an outer and an inner hard chitinous coat, and an intermediate layer of brown cellular tissue containing little or no air. The buoyancy is due entirely to the central cavity, neither the seed-tests nor the seed contents possessing any floating power (see page 181 ). 2. Mucuna urens , from Hawaii (natural size). The kernel ( b ) sinks, and the shell has no

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The Second Group.

Here are included those seeds and stone-fruits that possess buoyant kernels. Professor Schimper points out that since this is a feature both with inland as well as coast plants such a character cannot be viewed as an adaptation to dispersal by currents. The plants concerned belong mostly to the Leguminosæ, and we find here some of the most widely spread of strand species, such as Canavalia obtusifolia and Sophora tomentosa, as well as some of the giant climbers of the coast forests belonging to

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The Third Group.

We have here those plants where the floating-power is entirely or mainly due to an air-bearing tissue in the seed-tests or fruit-coats. Several of the fruits are figured in Schimper’s Indo-malayische Strand-flora , and one or two are figured in the English edition of his work on Plant-Geography , p. 29. In the first section, where the buoyant tissue occurs at the outside or forms the periphery of the seed or fruit, are included several of the most familiar of the littoral trees and shrubs of the

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The structure of the buoyant seeds and seedvessels of the littoral plants of the British flora.

The littoral plants with floating seeds or fruits form but a section of the strand-plants of the British flora, scarcely a third, as is pointed out in Chapter IV. , of the total number. Though small in number they exhibit great variety in structure; and notwithstanding that as far as they have been examined they may all be referred to one or other of the groups and sections of the classification adopted in the synopsis for the plants of the Pacific islands, nearly every plant presents in the str

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Summary of the Chapter.

(1) Following the main lines of Schimper’s classification of those of the Indo-Malayan region which possesses for the most part the same species, the buoyant seeds and fruits of the littoral plants of the Pacific islands are classed in three groups: the first where the cavity of the seed or fruit is incompletely filled, the floating power arising from the empty space; the second where the buoyancy is derived from the buoyant nucleus or kernel; and the third where it arises from air-bearing tissu

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Summary of the Chapter.

(1) There are many mechanisms or contrivances in plants that now serve a purpose for which they were not originally developed. (2) Of this nature, it is contended, is the relation between fruits and seeds and the agencies of dispersal. (3) If, however, the structure or mechanism is made more effective by the new function, such a modification may be regarded as an “adaptation” in the language of the theory of Natural Selection. (4) It is held by Professor Schimper that the structures connected wi

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Grouping of the Plant-Genera of the Islands of the Tropical Pacific that possess both Littoral and Inland Species.

Section I. Where the littoral and inland species are most probably of independent origin, both possessing their own means of dispersal; Calophyllum, Hibiscus, Colubrina, Morinda, Scævola, Cordia, Ipomœa, Vitex, Tacca, Casuarina. Section II. Where the littoral species have probably given rise to inland species, and both still exist in the group of islands: Vigna, Premna. Section III. Where inland species have been probably developed from littoral species no longer existing in the group: Canavalia

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Section I

This group, which includes those genera where the coast and inland species are regarded as of independent origin, both possessing their own means of dispersal, contains about half of the total number of genera here concerned. We will first deal with the genera Calophyllum, Morinda, and Scævola, where the littoral species have buoyant fruits or seeds that are dispersed by currents, whilst the inland species have more or less non-buoyant fleshy fruits that could only be dispersed by frugivorous bi

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Section II

This division includes those genera where the littoral species has apparently given rise to one or more inland species and both still exist in the same group of islands. Two genera alone, Vigna and Premna, come into this category. The first-named seems to present a good case for the derivation of an inland from a coast species in Hawaii. Besides Vigna lutea, the beach species, which is found not only all over the Pacific islands but on the tropical beaches of the Old World, there are in Hawaii t

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Section III

Here we have three genera of the Leguminosæ, namely, Erythrina, Canavalia, and Sophora, and one Apocynaceous genus, Ochrosia, in which it is considered that inland species have been probably developed from littoral species no longer found in the group. In this case the shore species, possessing buoyant seeds or fruits that are known to be dispersed by the currents, is absent from the particular group in which the inland species occurs; and since the last-named displays no capacity for distributi

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Erythrina.

If we look over the Pacific islands in search of a critical locality for the investigation of the genetic relation between the littoral and coast species of Erythrina, we discover it, as far as I can gather, only in one group. In Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa we find only the littoral species; in Hawaii there is only an inland species; whilst in Tahiti occur both the littoral and the inland species—E. indica, the wide-ranging shore-tree of the South Pacific, and E. monosperma, the inland tree of Hawaii

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Canavalia.

This genus is represented in the tropical islands of the South Pacific from Fiji to Tahiti by three littoral species, none of which have been found in Hawaii, where only an endemic inland species exists. Reference will alone be made here to such facts as bear on the probable history of the mysterious Hawaiian species, additional particulars being given in Note 54 . The littoral species, Canavalia obtusifolia (D.C.), C. sericea (Gray), and C. ensiformis (D.C.), have buoyant seeds and are disperse

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Mezoneuron.

Another closely parallel instance, offering, from the standpoint of dispersal, the same difficulties presented by Canavalia galeata, is to be found in Mezoneuron kauaiensis (Hillebr.), a tall inland shrub also peculiar to the group and belonging alike to the Leguminosæ. The difficulties are so nearly identical that the same explanation will have to cover both; but it is significant that with Mezoneuron there is no littoral species to which we can appeal to extricate us from the difficulty. Yet t

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Sophora.

In this genus, as in Erythrina and Canavalia, we have a littoral species, Sophora tomentosa, that ranges over the tropical beaches of the globe, including most of the islands of the Pacific, but does not occur in Hawaii, where the genus is represented by an endemic inland species, S. chrysophylla. Here also we find the shore-species with seeds capable of floating for months on account of their buoyant kernels, and the inland species with seeds that sink even after years of drying (see Note 56 ).

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Ochrosia (Apocyneæ).

This genus seems to offer the strongest testimony in support of the derivation of an inland species from a strand-plant. The drupes are so large, the minimum size of the “stone” being 1 1 ⁄ 2 or 2 inches (37 to 50 mm.), and so dry and unattractive for birds, that any other agency but that of the currents appears to be out of the question. Indeed their dry appearance would suggest to my readers that only birds of the habits of the ostrich would venture on such a diet. It is, however, worth noting

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Summary of Chapter (see end of Chapter XVI.).

The Fijian difficulty.—Inland species of a genus possessing fruits not known to have any means of dispersal through agencies now at work in the Pacific.—Pandanus.—Its remarkable distribution in oceanic groups.—To be attributed perhaps to extinct Columbæ or extinct Struthious birds.—Barringtonia.—Guettarda.—Eugenia.—Drymispermum.—Acacia laurifolia.—Conclusions to be drawn from the discussion.—Summary of chapters XIV, XV, XVI....

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Section IV

Here we deal with two genera, Pandanus and Barringtonia, where inland endemic species occur in the same group with the wide-ranging coast species, but possess fruits concerning which it is either difficult or almost impossible to suggest a mode of dispersal by existing agencies. This section is especially concerned with Fiji, and represents the peculiar “Fijian difficulty” that is illustrated by other genera as—for instance, the Coniferous genus Dammara—which are not in any sense littoral. Furth

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Pandanus.

I take this genus first because the recent monograph on the Pandanaceæ by Dr. Warburg (Engler’s Das Pflanzenreich , 1900) enables me to tread on relatively safe ground in making my deductions. The three genera of the order, Freycinetia, Pandanus, and Sararanga, each tell their own story; and in each and all of them I have taken an especial interest from the standpoint of their dispersal. Freycinetia is fully discussed in Chapter XXV. , and presents no difficulties respecting its dispersal. In th

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Barringtonia.

There are two littoral species of this genus in the Pacific, B. speciosa and B. racemosa, both widely spread over the Old World, but only the first is generally distributed over the Polynesian region reaching east to Ducie Island, whilst the second does not extend east of Fiji and Samoa. With the exception of one or two inland species in Fiji and Samoa no inland species have been recorded from the groups of the open Pacific, and the genus is not represented at all in Hawaii. If it were not for a

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Section V.

In this section are included those genera where within the same genus some inland species have been derived from the coast species whilst others have been originally brought by birds. Guettarda alone belongs here. In this genus we find, as is so frequently the case, a littoral tree (G. speciosa) widely spread in the Old World and ranging over the whole tropical Pacific as far east as Pitcairn and Elizabeth islands, but absent from Hawaii. Here also as with Pandanus it is only in the Western Paci

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Section VI.

In this section are contained genera possessing littoral species restricted to the Western Pacific islands, and dispersed by birds, but having little or no capacity for dispersal by the currents. They are regarded as derived from the inland species of the genus in the western part of the Pacific, and as distributed from thence over the islands in that part of the ocean. We are here only concerned with Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa and the neighbouring islands. The genera Eugenia, Drymispermum, and Acac

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The conclusions to be drawn from the discussion of the relations between the littoral and inland species of the same genus in the Pacific islands. (Chapters XIV., XV., XVI.)

In ten of the twenty-two genera here dealt with (Calophyllum, Hibiscus, Colubrina, Morinda, Scævola, Cordia, Ipomœa, Vitex, Tacca, Casuarina) the shore and inland species have their own independent modes of dispersal, usually by currents in the case of coast plants, and by birds in that of inland plants; and the relations between the two are not such as to suggest a derivation of one from the other. In six genera the inland species are regarded as derived from the littoral species. In two of the

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Summary of Chapters XIV., XV., XVI.

(1) Though littoral floras are as a rule chiefly made up of two sets of plants, one brought through the agency of the currents from regions outside, and the other derived from the inland flora of the region concerned, the proportion of the two varies much amongst temperate and tropical strand-floras, the current-borne plants forming the majority in the tropics, and those from the inland flora of the region prevailing in the temperate zone. (2) There is, therefore, far greater uniformity as a rul

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Afzelia bijuga (Gray).

This Old World tree, which belongs to the sub-family Cæsalpiniæ, is of great interest to the student of plant-dispersal. It is one of that large group of Indo-Malayan plants that extend into the Western Pacific, and give the prevailing character to the floras of such archipelagoes as that of Fiji. It is a large tree yielding a valuable timber used by the Fijians and Samoans for many purposes, such as for canoes, house-posts, clubs, kava bowls, &amp;c., but it has not been recorded from the T

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Summary relating to Afzelia bijuga.

(1) Assuming that the genus has its home in the African continent, and that the species have frequently a riverside station, it is argued that the distribution of the genus on both sides of that continent can only be explained by its dispersal by rivers from a centre in the interior. (2) Afzelia bijuga, a widely distributed shore tree of tropical Asia, occurs in Fiji both at the coast and in the inland forests. (3) This double station is associated inter alia with a different buoyant behaviour o

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Entada scandens (Benth.).

The story of Entada scandens, a plant familiar to many of my readers under the name of the Queensland Bean, is a story of three continents, Africa, Asia, and America. From the point of view of its dispersal two features at once attract attention in the case of this giant-climber; in the first place its wide distribution over the tropics of the Old and New Worlds, and in the second place the great capacity of its large seeds, often two inches across, for dispersal by the currents. But before disc

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Summary relating to Entada scandens

(1) This plant, which has been distributed by the currents over the tropics of the globe, has its station in the mangrove swamp, on the beach, by the estuary, and in the inland forest. (2) It is regarded as an American plant that has reached the shores of the Indian Ocean by crossing the Pacific, and the coast of West Africa by crossing the Atlantic. (3) Its occurrence on both coasts of America is attributed to its having a focus of dispersal in the forests of Central America, from which its see

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Cæsalpinia

This genus is represented in the tropics of both the Old and the New World by some eighty species of trees, shrubs, and climbers, some of which are noted for their dye-woods, and others for the beauty of their flowers. In the Pacific islands the botanist is only concerned with three widely distributed species, all more or less littoral in their station, and in great part dispersed by the currents, namely, Cæsalpinia nuga (Ait.), C. bonducella (Flem.), and C. bonduc (Roxb.). With Cæsalpinia nuga

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Summary.

The Leguminosæ are far more characteristic of the littoral flora than of the inland flora of the Pacific islands; and since the greater number of them have buoyant seeds, it follows that this order mainly owes its presence in this region to the currents. As it has been shown that in a large number of islands where there is no littoral flora the Leguminosæ are wanting, the presumption arises that when, as in Hawaii, inland species occur which at present have no capacity for dispersal by currents,

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Introductory Remarks.

I will carry my readers back to that moment when we began to investigate together the composition of the floras of the islands of the tropical Pacific from the standpoint of dispersal. It will be remembered that after collecting all the fruits and seeds of a particular island we placed them in sea-water, and that some nine-tenths of them went to the bottom at once or in a few days. We found, speaking generally, that the buoyant seeds and fruits belonged to coast plants, whilst those at the botto

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Comparison of the Areas and Altitudes of Hawaii, Fiji, and Tahiti.

Since differences in physical conditions have played an important part in plant distribution in these groups—such, for instance, as in determining the development of a mountain flora or in favouring the relative abundance of particular types of plants—it is at first essential to obtain a general idea, in the case of the larger islands of each group, of their size and elevation, and of the more conspicuous differences in their climates. Hawaii, the largest island of the Hawaiian archipelago, has

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Comparison of the Climates of Hawaii, Fiji, and Tahiti.

Before comparing the climatic conditions in the three groups, it may first be remarked that since they lie, roughly speaking, at not very dissimilar distances north and south of the equator a great contrast is not to be expected in so far as they agree in elevation. The mean latitudes do not differ greatly, that of Hawaii being 20° to 21° N., and those of Fiji and Tahiti both about 18° S. The climate of both groups is tempered by the north-east trade in the one region and by the south-east trade

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The Rainfall.

The Hawaiian Islands. —Although on account of the extensive deforesting of the Hawaiian Islands since their discovery the contrast between this group and that of Fiji is now, as regards rainfall, somewhat emphasised, it is almost certain that in early times the contrast was much less marked. In the lower levels the natives and sandal wood traders in the past, and the agriculturists in the present, have accomplished much in this direction. Between 1,000 and 3,000 feet, whole forests were in my ti

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Summary of the Chapter.

(1) Whilst the winds and the currents have been working tranquilly through the ages, bringing always the same vascular cryptogams and shore-plants to the Pacific islands, the bird has ever been a disturbing factor in the inland flora, and changes often of a revolutionary character have taken place from time to time within the forest-zone. (2) In the discussion of the inland plants of these islands, the Fijian, Tahitian and Hawaiian areas are taken as centres of development and dispersal, and as

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Introductory Remarks

In the endeavour to follow the various stages in the floral history of the Pacific islands from the standpoint of plant-dispersal, a method is here adopted which is not often employed. The usual mode of making a general description of a flora is not intended to bring out its genesis in point of time. We describe the result of a long series of changes dating back to some unknown period, much as one might describe the present condition of a people without reference to their history; and for obviou

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The Age of Ferns.

It was established by Dr. Treub in the case of Krakatoa that ferns and algæ formed the earliest vegetation of this island after it had been completely stripped of all its plants in the great eruption of 1883. It is, therefore, but natural that the vascular cryptogams should first be dealt with in any discussion relating to the historical aspects of these floras. It has been before remarked that the epoch of ferns and lycopods, which began with the earliest stage in the island’s floral history, m

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The Endemism of the Pacific Island Floras.

As far as the production of new species is concerned, the Hawaiian group presents the same contrast with the Fijian and Tahitian groups in respect of the flowering plants that it does as regards the ferns and lycopods. The proportion of endemic species, after excluding all introduced plants, is in Hawaii 80 per cent., in Fiji about 50 per cent., and in Tahiti 35 per cent. (see Table A). The same contrast is also displayed in the number of peculiar genera. In Hawaii there are, according to Dr. Hi

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Synopsis of the Eras of the Flowering Plants in the Tropical Pacific.

A. The Era of the Endemic Genera. —Mostly American in their affinities. Represented particularly by Compositæ and Lobeliaceæ. B. The Era of Non-Endemic Genera. (1) The mountain genera, either cosmopolitan in temperate latitudes or derived from the New Zealand or the Antarctic flora. Mostly represented in Hawaii. (2) The genera forming the low-level flora of Hawaii below 4,000 or 5,000 feet and composing almost the entire floras of the Fijian and Tahitian regions. Predominantly Indo-Malayan. ( a

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The First Era of the Flowering Plants, being the Age of the Endemic Genera.

With the above preliminary remarks I pass on to the next stage in the history of the stocking of these islands with their plants. The age of the ferns and lycopods is left behind, and it is assumed that the next era is mainly indicated by those genera of phanerogams that are now peculiar to their respective groups. In this connection by far the most interesting of the three regions, the Hawaiian, the Tahitian or East Polynesian, and the Fijian, is that of Hawaii, which, as before observed, is di

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The Endemic Genera of Compositæ.

On account of their endemic character the peculiar genera of Compositæ are regarded as belonging to the oldest era of the flowering plants of the island-groups lying in the tropical latitudes of the open Pacific. This is the view of Bentham, but it is, of course, the opinion that most botanists would arrive at with the facts before them. With the exception of the solitary Tahitian genus Fitchia, they are all restricted to the Hawaiian Islands, and nearly all are either shrubby or arborescent, th

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Summary of Chapter.

(1) The Hawaiian Islands present the same contrast with the Fijian and Tahitian groups as regards the development of new species in the case of the flowering plants that they offer in the case of the vascular cryptogams (ferns and lycopods). But the contrast is intensified, and it is further emphasised as respecting the flowering plants by the evolution of a large number of endemic genera. (2) This great preponderance of peculiar species and genera in Hawaii is not to be connected with the relat

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The Lobeliaceæ of the Hawaiian Islands.

Having thus prepared the way, I will proceed to the discussion of the Hawaiian Lobeliaceæ, dealing first with their “station.” Their vertical distribution is well illustrated in the large and lofty island of Hawaii. Whilst the woody Compositæ, as before described, are most at home on the open-wooded and often scantily-forested slopes between 5,000 and 9,000 feet, the Lobeliaceæ are most characteristic of the middle or true forest zone that extends from 2,000 or 3,000 feet to between 5,000 and 6,

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The Lobeliaceæ of the Tahitian or East Polynesian Region.

The order is represented in this region by two endemic genera, Sclerotheca of Tahiti and Rarotonga, and Apetahia of Raiatea. These islands are, however, not sufficiently large for the extensive development of the arborescent Lobeliaceæ, such as we find in Hawaii. The species in both genera are either arborescent or shrubby; but I do not gather that they give any character to the floras of these islands. According to the data given by Drake del Castillo for one of the two peculiar species of Scle

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The Hawaiian Endemic Genera excepting those of the Compositæ and Lobeliaceæ.

It will not be possible for me to do more than point out a few general indications that can legitimately be drawn from these genera. The subject bristles with difficulties for the systematist; but on one point there can be but little danger of going astray, namely, in imputing to them a high antiquity in the floral history of Hawaii. This can be said of all of them, whether or not the generic distinction adopted in Dr. Hillebrand’s work is always adopted by botanists. It is therefore in this gen

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The Endemic Genera of the Fijian Islands.

The interest that is associated with the endemic genera of Hawaii fails to attach itself to those of Fiji. For this there are several reasons. In the first place, our acquaintance with the Fijian flora is much less complete. In the next place, the group holds a much less isolated position, and the history of an endemic genus may have a significance quite different from that connected with it in Hawaii. Fiji also lacks, on account of its submergence in the Tertiary period, those highly interestin

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Summary.

(1) The Lobeliaceæ, like the Compositæ, take a prominent place in the early Pacific flora, being represented, more particularly in Hawaii but also in the East Polynesian or Tahitian region, by endemic genera of tall shrubby and tree-like species. (2) Tree-Lobelias occur in other parts of the world, as in South America and tropical Africa; but it is especially on the higher slopes of the mountains of Equatorial Africa that they attain a development comparable with that of Hawaii. (3) In Hawaii th

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The Age of the Endemic Genera of Flowering Plants.

We are now entering an era distinguished from the preceding age of the endemic genera, the age chiefly of the Compositæ and Lobeliaceæ, by the fact that the extreme isolation that followed that era no longer prevails. In a sense these island-floras are in touch again with the world around, though the main stream of plant-migration now comes from the south and from the west. Yet in a large number of cases, the amount varying greatly in the different groups, it is evident that this stream has not

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The Mountain-Floras of the Pacific Islands.

In the Hawaiian Islands there are at least 37 or 38 genera, making up about 19 or 20 per cent. of those belonging to this era, that may be designated mountain genera, nearly all of them being characterised as appertaining exclusively or in the main to temperate regions, or as frequenting mountain-tops in tropical latitudes. In Tahiti there are only 7 or 8 of such genera, about 4 per cent. of the total for the era. In Fiji, excluding the Conifers, there are only 4 or 5, or not 2 per cent. of the

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The Mountain-Flora of Hawaii as illustrated by the Non-endemic Genera.

Let us look in the first place at Hawaii, where the breaking off of communication with the outside world is especially pronounced. Here, all the species of two-thirds or more of the mountain-genera are confined to that group. Only in a relatively small number of cases are the species in touch with the regions outside. The mystery of disconnection that is so evident in the instance of the peculiar or endemic mountain-genera of the Compositæ and Lobeliaceæ and other orders is here again presented

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Summary.

(1) The second era of the flowering plants of the Pacific islands is indicated by the non-endemic genera. Here also the isolating influences have been generally active, and the work of dispersal is in some regions largely suspended. Thus in Hawaii nearly half the non-endemic genera possess only species that are restricted to the group, whilst in Fiji and Tahiti about a fourth are thus isolated. (2) The contrast in the elevations of the islands of the Hawaiian, Tahitian, and Fijian regions is ref

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The Mountain-Flora of the Tahitian Region as Illustrated by the Non-Endemic Genera

This floral region of the Pacific corresponds with the limits of Eastern Polynesia, and includes not only the Tahitian group proper, but also the Cook, Austral, Paumotuan, and Marquesan groups. It is only, however, in Tahiti, the peaks of which rise to over 7,000 feet above the sea, that we should expect to find such a mountain-flora, since the islands of the other groups are much lower, the highest of them in the Marquesan group barely exceeding 4,000 feet. Yet even in Tahiti it is not possible

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The Fijian Coniferæ.

It has been found most convenient to discuss here these interesting plants, which belong in a general sense to the mountain-flora of this archipelago. That which the Fijian flora loses in interest in the eyes of the student of plant-dispersal in not possessing the mysterious Composite and Lobeliaceous genera of Hawaii and Tahiti, it regains in the possession of its genera of Coniferæ. If he felt loth to apply his empirical principles to the above-named Hawaiian and Tahitian endemic genera, he fe

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Summary.

(1) The evidences of a mountain-flora in Tahiti, as indicated by the non-endemic genera, though, as we would expect, of a scanty nature when contrasted with Hawaii, are nevertheless of considerable interest. There is much kinship with the Hawaiian mountain-flora, but it is mainly confined to genera from high southern latitudes, such as Nertera, Coprosma, Cyathodes, and Astelia, which are all dispersed by frugivorous birds. Amongst other plants linking the Tahitian mountains with the region of th

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The Age of Wide Dispersal over the Tropical Pacific.

The widely dispersed genera which possess only peculiar species in Hawaii.—Pittosporum.—Reynoldsia.—Gardenia.—Psychotria.—Cyrtandra—Freycinetia.—Sapindus.—Phyllanthus.—Pritchardia.—Summary. We pass now from the consideration of the mountain-flora of Hawaii and its scanty representation in the Fijian and Tahitian regions to a discussion of the low-level Hawaiian flora, belonging to stations under 4,000 or 5,000 feet, and of the corresponding floras of the other two regions. It has been previously

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The Widely-dispersed Genera which possess only Peculiar Species in Hawaii.

Amongst the oldest denizens of the Pacific islands in this era of the non-endemic genera may be taken those genera of flowering plants which are found in all three regions, Hawaii, Fiji, and Tahiti, but possess in the first group only endemic species, whilst in the other two regions they may include species both confined to and occurring outside the respective groups. They represent an age of wide dispersal over the Pacific, an age which for Hawaii has long since passed away, since all the gener

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Pittosporum (Pittosporeæ).

This genus, which contains nearly a hundred species, usually of small trees, is widely spread in the warmer regions of Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. It is also especially a genus of oceanic islands, occurring not only in those of the Pacific but also in Madeira and Teneriffe in the Atlantic. Though found in most of the larger Pacific groups, it has apparently never been recorded from Samoa. From Hawaii ten species are known, all peculiar to that group. About half a dozen have been de

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Reynoldsia (Araliaceæ).

The Polynesian genus of Reynoldsia, originally established by Gray, is merged by Hooker and Bentham into the Malayan genus Trevesia, a step that brings the Pacific plants into line with many other of the plants hailing originally from the Old World. The significant fact in the distribution of this genus of small trees in the Pacific is that its dispersal over the ocean has ceased long ago, since the three species here occurring are restricted each to a particular group, namely, to Hawaii, Tahiti

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Gardenia (Rubiaceæ).

This genus, comprising about a hundred known species, is spread over tropical Africa, Asia, and America, and over all the groups of the tropical Pacific. On account of their handsome, white, scented flowers these shrubs are much appreciated by the Pacific islanders, who employ the flowers for personal decoration. Some ten species have been described from the groups of the open Pacific, all of which, with the exception of Gardenia tahitensis, which ranges the South Pacific from Fiji to the Marque

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Psychotria (Rubiaceæ).

We find in this large genus of the Old and New Worlds a typical example of the plants with fleshy drupes containing hard pyrenes that represent, from the standpoint of dispersal, a common Rubiaceous type of plant in the tropical Pacific. Such plants, of which those of Coprosma and Nertera may be cited as other instances, are in a generic sense always widely distributed in these islands. They are eminently suited for dispersal by frugivorous birds; and it is a matter for surprise, therefore, that

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Cyrtandra (Gesneraceæ).

This remarkable genus of shrubs, which forms the subject of an important memoir by Mr. C. B. Clarke ( De Cand. Mon. Phan. v. 1883-87), offers, as Mr. Hemsley remarks, an example of a Malayan genus extending to Polynesia and there developing numerous species. Of some 180 known species, about 80 or nearly half are confined to Polynesia, the rest being mainly Malayan. Of the Polynesian species about thirty are Hawaiian, twenty Fijian, fifteen Samoan, and twelve Tahitian; whilst solitary species are

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Freycinetia (Pandanaceæ).

If there is any genus of tropical plants to which the student of distribution can look for guidance in the region of the Pacific, it is to Freycinetia as dealt with by Dr. Warburg in his monograph on the order (Engler’s Pflanzenreich , iv. 9, 1900). Its characters and its distribution are well defined; and here, if anywhere, we might be able to work out the history of a genus. In the words of the German botanist, it stands quite apart from Pandanus and Sararanga, the two other genera of the orde

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SAPINDUS AND PHYLLANTHUS.

Brief reference can alone be made to these two genera. Foremost comes Sapindus, which is represented by two endemic species, one in Hawaii and one in Fiji, and by another species, found in Tahiti, the Marquesas, and Easter Island, which is identified by some botanists with the well-known American “soap-tree,” S. saponaria. There are several difficulties connected with the presence of this genus of the Old and New World in the Pacific. Not the least of them is connected with the transport of the

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Pritchardia (Palmaceæ).

This genus of Fan Palms supplies an instructive lesson for the student of plant-distribution, more especially with reference to the loss of the endemic reputation of a genus. Regarded by the earlier botanists who visited the Pacific as identical with the familiar Asiatic Talipot Palm (Corypha umbraculifera), the Fan Palms of this region, as represented in Fiji and Hawaii, were subsequently placed by Seemann and Wendland in a new genus restricted to Polynesia and named after a former British Cons

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Summary.

(1) Whilst the earliest age characterised by the Coniferæ was restricted to the Western Pacific, and whilst the following age of the Compositæ and Lobeliaceæ, mainly American in their affinities, was concerned with the regions of Hawaii and Tahiti, we have now to discuss the Malayan era during which the bulk of the plants were derived from the nearest tropical regions of the Old World. Here we have to deal with the low-level flora of Hawaii, that is to say, with the plants of the levels below 4,

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Elæocarpus (Tiliaceæ).

This is a genus of trees containing, according to the Index Kewensis , about 130 species, most of which are confined to tropical Asia, including Malaya; but a fair number occur in the Pacific region, in Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the tropical Pacific, and the genus is also found in Japan. It will thus be seen that Elæocarpus is not only a continental but also a typical insular genus. It has reached not only some of the most isolated island-groups of the Pacific, but it is to be f

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Dodonæa (Sapindaceæ).

This genus of small trees and shrubs includes between fifty and sixty known species, of which about forty are confined to Australia; but a few species are found over the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, extending sometimes into temperate latitudes. There are, it seems, only three species known from the oceanic groups of the tropical Pacific: one, the cosmopolitan Dodonæa viscosa, that occurs in every island of volcanic formation; and two others associated with it in the Hawaiian Gr

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Metrosideros (Myrtaceæ)

Whilst this genus of trees and shrubs has its home in New Zealand and Australia, there is an extremely variable Polynesian species, Metrosideros polymorpha, ranging over all the volcanic groups of the tropical Pacific, from Fiji to Pitcairn Island and from Hawaii to the Kermadec group, but seemingly only in the Hawaiian group associated with endemic species. According to the Index Kewensis the genus comprises about forty known species, of which two-thirds are confined to New Zealand and Australi

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Alyxia (Apocynaceæ).

This genus of climbing or straggling shrubs tells its own story of the widely dispersed Indo-Malayan genera in the Pacific islands. Containing about forty known species, it is distributed over the tropical regions from Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands eastward to the Paumotu Group and Pitcairn Island in mid-Pacific, and has its focus in the area comprised by Malaya, Australia, and New Caledonia. In the Index Kewensis about eight species are assigned to New Caledonia, seven to Australia, and

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The Last Stage of the General Dispersal of Plants of the Malayan Era.

We arrive now at the close of the era of the general dispersal of tropical plants, mainly Malayan, over the Pacific, and this brings us down to our own age. The few genera that are still dispersed have no peculiar species in particular groups. The species which often range over all the groups, and retain as a rule their characters in most of them, do not therefore display, except in a few cases, that extreme variation which would give them a place in the ranks of the polymorphous species. The di

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Summary.

(1) A later period in the era of the general dispersal of Malayan plants over the Pacific is indicated by the genera that contain species found outside each group as well as species restricted to it. (2) In this period the extremely variable or polymorphous species plays a conspicuous part, as represented in such genera as Alphitonia, Dodonæa, Metrosideros, Pisonia, and Wikstrœmia. (3) The first stage is displayed by a solitary widely-ranging species found over most of the Polynesian archipelago

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Synopsis of the Chapter.

Hawaii. —(1) The Hawaiian residual genera, being those not found in either the Fijian or the Tahitian regions. The genera especially discussed are Osmanthus, Sicyos, Jacquemontia, Cuscuta, Rumex, Dracæna, Naias, Potamogeton; and amongst others mentioned are Perrottetia and Embelia. (2) The Hawaiian genera found in Tahiti and not in Fiji. Very few, and illustrated by Byronia, Reynoldsia or Trevesia, Phyllostegia, and Pseudomorus, though it is likely that most of these will be subsequently discove

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Hawaii.

After excluding the endemic genera as well as those that are confined to the mountains, we find that this group possesses very few genera that do not occur in the Fijian and Tahitian regions, and fewer still that it owns in common with Tahiti to the exclusion of Fiji. On the other hand, we observe that Fiji possesses a great number of genera, mostly Asiatic in origin, that have not reached Hawaii, and in several cases are not known, from the Tahitian region. These contrasts might have been expec

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The Hawaiian Residual Genera.

It is my purpose now to deal in an illustrative fashion with this Hawaiian residual flora which is composed, as above explained, of the non-endemic tropical genera that are not represented in the Fijian and Tahitian regions. Up to the present we have been dealing with the characters that the floras of Fiji, Tahiti, and Hawaii possess in common as far as tropical genera are concerned. We will now proceed to discuss their differences in this respect, and will begin with the residual Hawaiian flora

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Hawaiian Genera found in Tahiti to the Exclusion of Fiji.

Taking only the genera that are strictly indigenous, and excluding therefore all those introduced by the aborigines, the number available for establishing an independent connection between the Hawaiian and Tahitian regions is exceedingly few. Amongst the Hawaiian shore-plants not found in Fiji proper but occurring in the Tahitian region are Heliotropium anomalum and Sesuvium portulacastrum. The last-named, however, has been recorded from Tonga, which lies within the Fijian area; whilst the first

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Hawaiian Genera found in Fiji to the Exclusion of Tahiti.

We shall be able to throw further light on the floral history of Hawaii by discussing the few tropical genera, not a score in all, that it possesses in common with Fiji to the exclusion of the Tahitian region. The following genera offer themselves for treatment:—Eurya (Ternstrœmiaceæ), Gouania (Rhamnaceæ), Maba (Ebenaceæ), Sideroxylon (Sapotaceæ), Antidesma (Euphorbiaceæ), Pleiosmilax (Smilaceæ), and Ruppia (Potameæ). These seven genera, which with the exception of Ruppia, an aquatic genus, are

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The Absentees from Hawaii.

It has been before remarked that of the 330 or 340 genera of flowering-plants recorded from Fiji some 200 are not known in Hawaii. It will only be possible to deal with the absent genera in a cursory manner; but enough will be done to show that we are face to face here with a multitude of the seeming inconsistencies that so often beset the study of plant-distribution. A host of plants are unrepresented in Hawaii, of which it may be said that their seeds or fruits are not less suited for being ca

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Tahiti.

The peculiarities of the Tahitian flora as compared with Hawaii and Fiji may be discussed by treating first those genera that are alone represented in Tahiti, the “residual” genera; then those that it possesses in common first with Hawaii and then with Fiji; and lastly by pointing out the more noticeable gaps in the flora. By Tahiti is typically signified the whole Tahitian region, which includes the Austral and Cook Groups, the Society Islands, the Paumotus, and the Marquesas....

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The Tahitian Residual Genera.

The non-endemic genera occurring alone in the Tahitian region and not found either in Hawaii or in one or other of the three groups of the Fijian region (Fiji, Tonga, Samoa) are not more than half a dozen. These six genera are exceedingly interesting; but since each tells a different story and gives its own independent indication they cannot be treated in a collective sense. Nor are they all to be regarded as anomalies in plant-distribution, since with a single exception there is scarcely one co

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Tahitian Genera found in Hawaii to the Exclusion of Fiji.

This subject has been already discussed in this chapter in dealing with the genera restricted to Hawaii and Tahiti....

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Tahitian Genera found in Fiji to the Exclusion of Hawaii.

Excluding the orchids, sedges, and grasses, as well as the few endemic genera, between sixty and seventy genera, or rather less than half of the genera of the flowering-plants of Tahiti, are found in Fiji to the exclusion of Hawaii. Of these, rather over a half are Old World genera; about a third occur in both the Old and the New World; four are confined to Polynesia, and not one is exclusively American. One-third are genera now possessing in the Tahitian region endemic species either entirely o

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The Absentees from Tahiti

Generally speaking, all the “difficult” genera which puzzle the student of plant-dispersal in Fiji and Hawaii are absent from the Tahitian region. Those with stone-fruits and with large seeds, where the stone or seed is an inch in size and over, are absent from Tahiti. Thus the genera Canarium, Dracontomelon, Myristica, Sterculia, and others, of which the three first-named are known to be dispersed by fruit-pigeons, have not advanced into the Pacific eastward of the Fijian region. We miss in the

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Fiji The Fijian Genera not found in either the Tahitian or Hawaiian Regions

We have already in some degree dealt with Fiji in so far as the partial dispersal of genera over the Pacific islands is concerned. We have seen that it possesses very few genera (not a score in all) in common with Hawaii that are not found in the Tahitian region, and it is assumed that in most cases such genera reached Hawaii independently and not through the South Pacific. On the other hand, excluding the grasses, sedges, and vascular cryptogams, Fiji owns in common with Tahiti between sixty an

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Sterculia

The problem connected with the presence of this genus in Fiji is but a part of the still more difficult problem connected with the dispersal of the genus over the tropics. The riddle presented by the Fijian species seems, indeed, difficult enough; but it merely presents in miniature the great mystery surrounding the whole genus. According to the Index Kewensis no other species have been found in oceanic islands except those occurring in the Western Pacific, as in Fiji, the New Hebrides, and New

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Trichospermum (Sterculiaceæ)

There are only two species of this tree recorded in the Index Kewensis , one in Java, and one in Fiji as well as in Samoa. The fruit is a capsule with small, flat seeds, margined by long hairs, that might possibly attach themselves to a bird’s feathers....

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Micromelum (Rutaceæ)

This small genus of tropical Asia, Malaya, tropical Australia and the islands of the Western Pacific, has one species, Micromelum pubescens, possessing the range of the genus with other species that are restricted to different localities. We thus have apparently another illustration of the part played by a wide-ranging polymorphous plant in providing new species. The red berries would easily attract frugivorous birds; but the seed-tests seem too delicate to allow the seeds to remain more than a

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Cananga odorata (Anonaceæ)

This tree, which is cultivated in many places in tropical Asia and Malaya, but is certainly indigenous, according to the authors of the Flora Indica , in Ava and Tenasserim, has apparently extended into the Pacific by cultivation. But though much valued by the natives on account of its fragrant flowers, and in consequence often planted by them near their villages, it grows in some localities in Fiji and Samoa as an indigenous plant. The berries are especially suited for dispersal by frugivorous

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Geissois (Saxifragaceæ)

This genus of seven or eight known species is found in Australia, New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, and Fiji. Since New Caledonia possesses four species, it may be considered the home of the genus. To the Fijian endemic species, G. ternata, I paid special attention. The capsules dehisce on the tree and allow the small seeds to escape. These seeds, which are very light, 150 to 200 going to a grain, are 3 to 4 mm. long and are winged at one end. They could no doubt be carried some distance by stron

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Begonia

Before the discovery of Hillebrandia, a new genus of the Begoniaceæ, in Hawaii, the order was not known from Polynesia. However, in 1878 Mr. Horne collected a species of Begonia in Fiji, and it was probably this species that frequently came under my notice in the rain-forests of the Vanua Levu mountains. In 1883 I collected a Begonia in the Solomon Islands, which I gave to Baron F. von Mueller, who informed me that it was the first record of the genus east of New Guinea, the description of Mr. H

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Dolicholobium (Rubiaceæ)

In the Index Kewensis this genus, containing five species, is restricted to Fiji. It must, however, be more generally distributed in the Western Pacific, since the genus was identified at Kew among my Solomon Island collections, and it is recorded in the list given in my book on that group (pages 283, 288, 297). The showy, large, white, fragrant flowers of these small trees recall those of Lindenia, with which Dolicholobium is often associated in Fiji by the sides of streams and rivers. As Horne

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Lindenia (Rubiaceæ)

Respecting its distribution in the Pacific, this genus of showy river-side shrubs takes the same place amongst the plants that Galaxias takes among the fishes. It is full of mystery. Of the four species known, two grow on the river-banks of Central America and two in similar stations in the islands of the Western Pacific. Of the last-named both occur in New Caledonia, one of them being endemic, whilst the other, Lindenia vitiensis, is found also in Fiji and Samoa. Reinecke seemingly records no S

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Limnanthemum (Gentianaceæ)

This interesting genus of aquatic plants is dispersed over the tropical and temperate regions of the globe, but with the exception of Fiji and the New Hebrides it is not found in oceanic groups, though it occurs in large continental islands like New Caledonia and Cuba. About twenty species are enumerated in the Index Kewensis , but it is stated in the Genera Plantarum that they can probably be reduced to ten, the reduction being chiefly applicable to the tropical species, nearly all of which are

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Ceratophyllum demersum

This wonderful aquatic has been dispersed over most of the globe; but I will only mention its occurrence in oceanic islands, such as Fiji, Samoa, the Bermudas, and the Azores, to indicate the necessity of attributing its distribution in islands to birds. Several years ago I made a careful study in England of the habits and mode of germination of this plant, the results of which are given in Science Gossip for November, 1894; but reference can only be made here to such points as bear on the occur

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Dracontomelon (Anacardiaceæ)

This is a genus accredited in the Index Kewensis with eight species, of which three belong to Borneo, one to Sumatra, one to Java, one to the Philippines, and two to Fiji, all the species being restricted in their range. My observations were confined to D. vitiense, Engler (D. sylvestre in Seemann’s work), the Tarawau of the Fijians, who regard it as a tree that is planted by the dead in Naithombothombo, the place of departed spirits, according to the legend given by Hazlewood in his Fijian Dict

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Canarium (Burseraceæ)

This genus of trees, to which nearly a hundred species are referred in the Index Kewensis , belongs mainly to tropical Asia and Malaya, a few species occurring in tropical Africa, Madagascar, the Mascarene Islands, and Polynesia. Its great home is in Malaya, to which two-thirds of the species are confined; but its distribution in the oceanic islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans is especially interesting, Mauritius, Bourbon, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa (Horne) each possessing a species. The large

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Couthovia (Loganiaceæ)

Reference is here made to this genus because its mode of dispersal is known, and because I was familiar with it in Fiji. Seemann gives two species for Fiji, C. corynocarpa and C. seemanni, and the few other species known seem to be confined to the Western Pacific. Solereder gives a third species, C. densiflora, for Kaiser-Wilhelmsland in New Guinea (Engler’s Pflanz. Fam. teil 4, abth. 2); and a Solomon Island species, nearly allied to, if not a variety of, the Fijian species, C. seemanni, is ref

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Veitchia (Palmaceæ)

This genus of palms is closely allied to Ptychosperma, a Malayan genus also represented in Fiji. The Index Kewensis names four species, one New Hebridean, and three Fijian. The fruits of two of the last-named species tested by me had no floating power. The seed is about an inch long, and the genus would be likely to be spread by fruit-pigeons. From the standpoint of dispersal the genus would be placed with Canarium and Couthovia; but possibly its presence in the Pacific may be indicative of an a

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Hibbertia (Dilleniaceæ)

This genus of some eighty known species is almost entirely Australian, with the exception of a few species found in New Caledonia, Tasmania, and apparently also in the Mascarene Islands. Horne was the first to record a species from Fiji, where it grows commonly in the “talasinga” plains on the lee sides of the islands, and also on the scantily vegetated mountain summits. In Vanua Levu I often found these plants growing on the rocky peaks of the highest mountains of the island, as on Mbatini, 3,5

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Myrmecodia and Hydnophytum (Rubiaceæ)

These two genera of epiphytes, distributed over Malaya and extending to the islands of the Western Pacific, possess tuber-like stems, which are extensively chambered by ants that find a home in the interior. They were familiar to me in the Solomon Islands, where they frequently grow on the mangroves and on other littoral trees. They do not form such a feature in the shore vegetation of Fiji, and judging from the observations of Dr. Seemann and myself they occur most often on the wooded mountain-

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Myristica

The Nutmeg trees, though principally at home in Indo-Malaya, are found also in the warm regions of Africa and America, as well as in the islands of the Western Pacific from the Solomon group eastward to Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. The Tongan and Samoan groups possess two species in common, whilst Fiji seems to possess its own species, four or five in number. The seeds of this genus have long been known to be dispersed by fruit-pigeons. Mr. Moseley, in his Notes of a Naturalist , and in the Journal o

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Rhaphidophora (Araceæ)

This genus of climbing aroids, which gives a character to the forests of Indo-Malaya as well as to those of the Western Pacific, is represented in the New Hebrides, Fiji, Tonga, and Rarotonga by a variety of the widely spread R. pertusa that ranges over Indo-Malaya and Eastern Australia. The ripe berries would readily attract birds; and the seeds, 4·5 millimetres long in the case of a Fijian plant, appear hard enough to pass unharmed through a bird’s digestive canal. We seem here to have evidenc

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Gnetum (Gnetaceæ)

This Gymnospermous genus, which is found in the warm regions both of the Old and the New World, is represented in Fiji by a Malayan species, Gnetum gnemon, which exists also in the Solomon group with other species of the genus (Guppy’s Solomon Islands , pp. 288, 301). I was familiar with this species in both Fiji and the Solomon group; but in the first-named locality it is seemingly restricted to the borders of Wainunu Bay on the south side of Vanua Levu, where Dr. Harvey first found it. It grow

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Elatostema (Urticaceæ)

This genus of annual and perennial herbs belongs to the tropical regions of the Old World. It is represented in Samoa by fifteen known species and by at least four or five in Fiji, whilst with the exception of a solitary Tahitian species it is not recorded from East Polynesia. Reference is here made to it particularly on account of its great development in Samoa. We have here a genus that, like Psychotria in Fiji and Cyrtandra in Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii, runs riot in respect to the production of

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Scirpodendron costatum (Cyperaceæ)

As far as I can gather, this giant-sedge has not been previously recorded from Fiji; but it is included in the Samoan flora, and has also been found at Penang and Singapore, as well as in Borneo, Java, and Queensland. In Samoa, as we learn from Reinecke, it grows both in the coast swamps and on dry ground. In Fiji it is very common in the mangrove-swamps at the mouths of rivers, especially in the Lower Rewa; but in Vanua Levu it is also frequent in the marshy localities of inland plateaux, 700 t

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Lemnaceæ

This order, judging from the writings of Hegelmaier, Schenck, and Hemsley, is represented by one or other of the common species, Lemna minor, L. gibba, L. polyrrhiza, in various Atlantic islands, as in the Bermudas, the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, and St. Helena; but doubts frequently arise as to their being truly indigenous. Lemna trisulca is regarded by Hemsley as indigenous in the Bermudas. Lemna minor has been introduced in recent years into Hawaii, where I observed it flowering and

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Marsilea (Marsileaceæ)

A species of this genus, apparently near Marsilea villosa, was common in the ditches and ponds around Notho, in the Rewa delta, Fiji, in 1897-99. The genus is included by Horne in his list of Fijian plants; but is not given by Seemann. The villous sporocarps, when dry, are very light and readily catch in cloth and in feathers. Hillebrand includes in the Hawaiian flora M. villosa and M. crenulata. The first-named, which was collected by Chamisso and Gaudichaud, finds (he says on the authority of

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Summary of the Chapter

(1) We are here concerned with the more restricted distribution of non-endemic tropical genera over the Pacific. The general trend eastward of these genera is well brought out in the fact that whilst Fiji possesses some sixty or seventy genera in common with Tahiti to the exclusion of Hawaii, it does not possess a score in common with Hawaii to the exclusion of Tahiti. The grasses and sedges and the mountain genera are not here included; and we are comparing the flora of the Hawaiian lowlands be

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Man and the Seed

Man in his distribution in the islands of the Pacific reproduces in a minor degree nearly all the difficulties presented there by plants, birds, and other forms of animal life. Like the plant he entered the ocean from the west; and as with the plants, so with the aborigines, there was an era of general dispersion over this ocean, followed by an age in which Polynesian man, ceasing to migrate, tended to settle down in the several groups, there undergoing differentiation in various respects, as in

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The Food-Plants of the Polynesians and Pre-Polynesians

One can imperfectly distinguish two sets of food-plants in this region; the first comprising such plants as Pachyrrhizus trilobus, Tacca pinnatifida, Amorphophallus campanulatus, the Mountain Bananas, the Wild Yams, and several others that grow wild, and, as a rule, only serve as food in times of scarcity; the second including the plants that are extensively cultivated by the present islanders, such as the Breadfruit, the Banana (Musa paradisiaca), the Taro (Colocasia antiquorum) and the two Yam

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THE POLYNESIAN WEEDS

Some curious questions are raised in connection with the weeds of this region. Polynesia, says Dr. Seemann, presents a most interesting problem with regard to its weeds. It is, however, necessary to point out that these plants arrange themselves into two groups, the aboriginal weeds comprising those existing in the islands at the time of Captain Cook’s expeditions in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and the white man’s weeds that have been since introduced. As concerning the Fijian Isl

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Aleurites Moluccana (The Candle-Nut Tree)

Much interest is attached to this tree, which is found in India, Malaya, and North-east Australia, and occurs all over the Pacific, extending north to Hawaii, south to the Kermadec Islands, and east to Tahiti and Pitcairn Island (Maiden). In the Hawaiian Islands it is often so frequent as to form whole forests, or at all events to give a character to the forest zone up to 2,000 feet above the sea. Its prevalence in Hawaii might be regarded as evidence of its indigenous character; but its predomi

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Inocarpus Edulis (The Tahitian Chestnut)

Like Aleurites moluccana this tree presents a primâ facie case for dispersal by currents. As the result of inquiries in this direction I have formed the opinion, however, that it has been mainly distributed by man. Though occurring in all the South Pacific groups, as far east as Tahiti and the Marquesas, it does not occur in Hawaii. With its home in Malaya it possesses a range closely resembling that of the breadfruit tree; and yet, although its fruits are often a common article of food in Polyn

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Gyrocarpus Jacquini

The cosmopolitan distribution of this seemingly useless tree, growing, as Hemsley remarks, in maritime districts throughout the tropics, in America, Australia, Asia, and Africa, presents one of the puzzles of plant-distribution. It is by no means universally spread in the Pacific islands, and I find reference to it only in Fiji and Tahiti. Seemann says that in Fiji it is common on the beaches of Taviuni and other islands. I found it to be a rare coast tree on Vanua Levu. It does not seem to have

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Serianthes myriadenia

This is a striking looking Acacia-like tree that might have been fitly discussed in the chapter on the enigmas of the Leguminosæ. Only four or five species are named in the Index Kewensis , of which one occurs in Malacca and in the Philippines, a second in New Caledonia, a third in Fiji, and the fourth, S. myriadenia, over the South Pacific groups of Fiji, Tonga, and Tahiti. Reinecke does not include the genus in the Samoan flora; and it is merely assigned to that group by Seemann on the authori

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Leucæna Forsteri

This bush of the Mimoseæ frequents maritime sands in the South Pacific, and is confined to this region. It has been found in New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga, Rarotonga, and Tahiti. The seeds sink and the pods dehisce on the plant, so that the agency of currents, unless we invoke the intervention of the drifting log, bearing the seeds in its crevices, seems to be excluded. Sea-birds might carry the seeds unharmed in their stomachs, but there is no evidence bearing on birds as agents in the dispersal o

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Mussænda frondosa

Mussænda frondosa is the only one of the sixty species of this tropical Asiatic and African genus that extends into Polynesia. This beautiful shrub, which is easily recognised by its conspicuous white, leaf-like calyx lobe, is common everywhere in Fiji, decorating, as Horne fitly remarks, in the contrast presented by its golden flowers, its large white calyx leaf, and its green foliage, many an acre of waste, grassy land, where the orange-coloured doves and the red and the green parrots flit to

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Luffa insularum

This is regarded as a maritime form of Luffa cylindrica, a plant commonly cultivated throughout the tropics. The South Pacific plant, which occurs also in Australia and Malaya, has been found in New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga, Rarotonga, and Tahiti. In Fiji it grows chiefly on the “talasinga” plains and in places once under cultivation. I noticed it in one locality climbing over the branches of an Inocarpus tree on the banks of the Rewa. In Rarotonga it is common in the lower regions. It is, accordi

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Summary of the Chapter

(1) Man in his distribution over the Pacific islands reproduces, but in a less degree, nearly all the difficulties presented by the plant in its dispersal. In both we have the age of general dispersion followed by a suspension more or less complete of the migrating movements; and in both we have differentiation associated with the isolation. (2) The Pacific islanders possess two sets of food-plants. In addition to those commonly cultivated in our own time, such as the yam, the taro, the banana,

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The Beach Drift of Temperate Latitudes

Dispersal by currents seems to be mainly restricted to warm latitudes. Whilst in the tropics seed-drift is abundant on the beaches, in the cooler regions of the globe it is usually very scanty and often masked by other vegetable débris . Let us take, for instance, a beach in the south of England. We can find by careful searching amongst the stranded drift the seeds and seed-vessels of various littoral plants of the buoyant group, such as Arenaria (Honckeneya) peploides, Cakile maritima, Crithmum

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The Beach-Drift of Tropical Latitudes.

Tropical beaches, as a rule, present a much greater abundance and variety of stranded seeds and fruits than we find on beaches in temperate latitudes. Observers in different parts of the tropics have alluded to the enormous amount of vegetable drift floating in the sea off the coasts, particularly in the vicinity of estuaries. Though much of it is brought down by rivers, a good proportion is also derived from the luxuriant vegetation that lines the beaches. Gaudichaud speaks of the immeasurable

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Summary.

(1) Effective dispersal by currents is mainly restricted to warm latitudes, as is indicated by the scanty character of the seed-drift stranded on the beaches of the south of England, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, and Southern Chile. (2) The present distribution in temperate latitudes of littoral plants possessing buoyant seeds or seed-vessels is to be attributed more to the influence of geographical and climatic conditions than to the agency of currents. With some of them, such as those that o

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Rhizophora

Of the three species of this genus, two of them, Rhizophora mucronata and R. conjugata, are Asiatic and are unknown in America; whilst the third, R. mangle, was until recently regarded as peculiar to the American and West African regions. When Mr. Hemsley wrote the Report on the Botany of the Challenger Expedition he remarked (iii, 149) that the American Rhizophora (R. mangle) appeared to be restricted to that region, and he questioned its existence in the Pacific Islands as indicated by Jouan f

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The Relative Abundance and Mode of Association of the three Fijian forms of Rhizophora.

Stated in their order of frequency, we have first Rhizophora mangle, the American species, then Rhizophora mucronata, the Asiatic species, and lastly the Selala. The first is equally at home at the sea-border and on the banks of brackish estuaries. The second is, as a rule, more exclusively at home on the sea-coasts; and the same may be said for the Selala. Usually all three kinds occur in the lower part of an estuary; but as we ascend the river and the water freshens, the Asiatic Rhizophora and

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The Characters of the Selala or Seedless Rhizophora compared with those of the American Mangrove (R. mangle) and the Asiatic Mangrove (R. mucronata).

The three kinds of Rhizophora, when seen at the same time along a tract of coast, may be readily distinguished by the different shades of green of their foliage, that of Selala being dark green, that of Rhizophora mucronata light green, and that of Rhizophora mangle intermediate in shade. The Selala is usually the tallest of the three, and attains a height of from 20 to 30 feet or even 40 feet and over, the aerial roots dropped from the higher branches giving it a characteristic aspect. Rhizopho

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The Occasional Occurrence of more than one Seed in the Fruits of Rhizophora mucronata and Rhizophora mangle (Polyembryony).

The bilocular ovary contains four ovules, one of which only as a rule becomes a seed. But it is incorrect to say that the fruits are always one-seeded, since two or even three seeds are occasionally produced, and they may all germinate. In November, 1897, I noted eight hundred fruits of Rhizophora mangle germinating on the trees in one of the creeks of the Rewa delta. Out of this number eight fruits had two germinating seeds and one had three, the protruding radicles being in all stages of growt

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The Seasons of Flowering and Fruiting of the Species of Rhizophora in Fiji.

The Selala flowers all the year. With the two American and Asiatic species there are considerable variations between different localities. Generally speaking, they flower and fruit all the year through; but the flowers are usually less abundant in the warm season from December to February, and the germinating fruits which are to be observed on the trees every month of the year are more numerous in that season....

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The History of the Reproductive Process in Rhizophora from the Fertilisation of the Ovule to the Falling of the Plantlet or Seedling from the Tree.

I devoted great attention to this subject in the instance of Rhizophora mangle, being desirous of determining two points, in the first place as to whether there was any period of rest between the maturation and germination of the seed, and in the second place as to the period that elapsed between the commencement of germination and the fall of the seedling. The principal change in the ovary for the first three or four weeks after fertilisation is shown in its increased breadth. The increase in h

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Rhizophora mucronata.

In my description of the germinating process of Rhizophora mangle from this particular standpoint I adopt the general views of Prof. Schimper, the observations being my own, the phraseology employed being his. It would be out of place here to deal with the biological significance of a process to which observers like Warming, Goebel, Karsten, Schimper and Haberlandt have applied their greater talents as well as their greater experience. I investigated the subject carefully from my own standpoint

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The mode of separation of the seedlings of Rhizophora mangle and Rhizophora mucronata

This is a process of expulsion almost akin to parturition, and is brought about by the outward growth of the neck of the cotyledonary body. There is much that is of great interest in this subject; and I may add that Haberlandt, in a memoir published in the Annales du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg for 1894, gives the results of an elaborate study of the viviparous process in this and other genera of mangroves. The same analogy seems also to have presented itself to him, but only in connection wi

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The means of dispersal of the genus Rhizophora

My experiments and observations were for the most part made on the Asiatic and American species in Fiji; but I enjoyed the opportunity of confirming some important points on the coast of Ecuador. We can only look to the currents for the explanation of the capacity of the genus to cross tracts of ocean; but, given this capacity, there is much that is difficult to understand in the distribution of the genus and of a species like Rhizophora mangle; and it is probable that we shall have to look behi

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Bruguiera rheedii (Blume)

This species is reduced in Hooker’s Flora of British India to Bruguiera gymnorhiza (Lam.), and thus viewed it has a very wide range in the Old World, corresponding very much to that of Rhizophora mucronata, namely, tropical East Africa, tropical East Asia to the Liukiu Islands, the Indian Archipelago, New Guinea, tropical Australia, and Western Polynesia, as in New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. There are four or five species of the genus, but all are confined to the Eastern Hemisphere, none

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Summary

(1) There are four typical mangroves of the Rhizophoraceæ in Fiji, Bruguiera rheedii, Rhizophora mucronata (the Asiatic species), Rhizophora mangle (the American species), and the Selala, a seedless form intermediate between the two species of Rhizophora just named, but nearest to the Asiatic species. (2) It is shown that the sterility of the Selala is connected with the impotent character of the pollen; and since the ovules appear capable of fertilisation this is held to indicate that cross fer

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Summary

The scale of germinative capacity, that begins with the seedling hanging from the branches of a mangrove like Rhizophora and ends with the detached immature seeds of many inland plants that only germinate after lying for some time in the soil, is regarded as supplying a record of the various epochs in the history of vivipary throughout the plant-world. In the occasional cases of incomplete vivipary occurring among inland plants and in the singular structure presented by the seeds of certain gene

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The Convolvulus soldanella Zone (Southern Chile).

This zone, which answers to the coast of Southern Chile, from Chiloe as far north as Coquimbo, corresponds to watered and vegetated inland regions, in which, however, the amount of rain and the degree of fertility decreases from south to north, that is to say, as we approach the desert regions. Here we find none of the dry beaches that prevail for twenty-five degrees of latitude north of Coquimbo. When we scoop with our hands to a depth of three or four inches in the sand we find it relatively c

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The Plantless or Desert Zone (Northern Chile).

This zone of the coast, which stretches north for some 700 miles from Coquimbo to near Arica (30°-18°30ʹ S. lat.), corresponds to the great desert region of North Chile. On the beaches of Antofagasta, Tocopilla, and Iquique, which are situated in the midst of this zone, I found no plants. This rainless sea border of barren mountains, presenting to the eye of the traveller from the deck of a passing steamer nothing but rock and sand, must be one of the most desolate coasts on our globe. It is the

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The Sesuvium Zone (The Peruvian Coast).

This zone, which comprises the whole Peruvian sea-border from Arica in 18°30ʹ S. to the vicinity of Tumbez in about 3°30ʹ S., usually possesses in its scanty littoral flora one or two species of Sesuvium, and in some places Sesuvium alone occurs on the beach. The beaches here do not line a region of almost complete aridity, as in the coast corresponding to the great desert region of North Chile. Though here also scarcely any rain falls, the sea-border receives the benefit of the “garuas” or driz

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The Mangrove Zone (the Coasts of Ecuador and Colombia)

We come now to the mangrove zone which comprises, with the remarkable exception of a long stretch of arid sea-border to the north of the Gulf of Guayaquil, the whole remaining western sea-border of South America, namely, the Ecuadorian and Colombian coasts. My own acquaintance with this region is limited to the estuary of the Guayas or the Guayaquil River and to the southern shore of the Gulf of Guayaquil; but I am able to avail myself of the researches of Baron von Eggers, which cover the entir

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The Shore-plants and Stranded Seed-drift of the Panama Isthmus.

I spent two days at Panama and two days at Colon in examining the neighbouring beaches and estuaries of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the isthmus. On the Panama side the mangrove-belt was formed on the seaward border of “mangle chico” (the small prevailing type of Rhizophora mangle), Laguncularia, and Avicennia; whilst behind it passed into extensive swampy tracts occupied by the Swamp Fern (Chrysodium aureum), Hibiscus tiliaceus, and other plants. On the Colon or Atlantic side the mangrove

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Summary.

(1) The strand-district of the west coast of South America is divided into four zones:— ( a ) The Convolvulus soldanella zone of Southern Chile. ( b ) The Desert or Plantless zone of Northern Chile. ( c ) The Sesuvium zone of Peru. ( d ) The Mangrove zone of Ecuador and Colombia. (2) The mangroves do not extend south of Ecuador or, more strictly, south of Tumbez (3° 30ʹ S.). (3) The absence of mangroves on the tropical coasts of Chile and Peru is attributed to the Humboldt current, which has so

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Summary.

(1) In explanation of the shifting of the source of the Polynesian plants from the New to the Old World, it is suggested that during the glaciation of the northern hemisphere the Indo-Malayan plants entering this region were “cornered” in the tropical Western Pacific, and were only set free after the cold period had passed away, when they overran Polynesia. (2) Whilst the age of the Conifers is placed in the Mesozoic period, that of the Compositæ is accredited to the Tertiary period, and the era

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CHAPTER XXXIV GENERAL ARGUMENT AND CONCLUSION

The problems concerned in the study of the floras of the Pacific islands from the standpoint of dispersal are here approached through the buoyant quality of the seed and fruit; and it is shown when dividing the plants into two groups, those with buoyant and those with non-buoyant seeds or fruits, that there has been at work through the ages a great sorting process, by which the plants belonging to the group first named have been mostly gathered at the coast. Its operation may be also observed wi

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NOTE 1 (page 13) On the Number of Known Species of Fijian Flowering Plants

Rather over 600 species of flowering plants are included in Seemann’s Flora Vitiensis , excluding the weeds and the plants introduced by man. Horne’s collections would probably add another 300 species; and many more remain to be discovered....

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NOTE 2 (page 13) The Littoral Plants of Fiji

In the following table are incorporated the results of an extensive series of observations and experiments on the buoyancy of the seeds and fruits of the shore plants made by the author during his sojourn of two years in Fiji, and based not only on prolonged buoyancy-tests, but also on systematic examination of the stranded and floating seed-drift, both of sea and river. The details would occupy many chapters: and it is only possible here to give the bare results. Since Professor Schimper went o

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NOTE 3 (page 13) Results of Long Flotation Experiments on the Seeds or Seed-vessels of Tropical Littoral Plants

At various times during the past twenty years I have made lengthened experiments in England on the buoyancy in sea-water of the seeds or seed-vessels of beach plants collected by me in the Solomon Islands, the Fijis, Hawaii, Keeling Atoll, &amp;c. In all the species enumerated below, the floating powers were retained after twelve months’ immersion, the seed-contents being to all appearance unharmed. In six species I succeeded in getting the seeds to germinate after the experiment; and there

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NOTE 5 (page 14). The Inland Fijian Plants possessing Buoyant Seeds or Fruits

They come under the following heads: (a) Plants of the stream-border or the pond-side or of the inland swamp, e.g. , Lindenia vitiensis and Hydrocotyle asiatica. The extension of the principle by which plants with buoyant seeds or fruits are located, not only at the sea-side but at the water-side generally, is here involved, as explained in Chapter III. (b) Plants following the rule deduced by Schimper for Terminalia, that when a genus comprises several species possessing buoyant fruits, only th

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NOTE 7 (page 15) Some Inland Hawaiian Plants possessing Buoyant Seeds or Fruits

Three of these, Eclipta alba, Hibiscus Youngianus, and Hydrocotyle verticillata, frequent wet places, and come under the principle that water-side plants generally have buoyant seeds or fruits. The buoyancy of the seeds of Argyreia tiliæfolia and of Ipomœa bona nox varies with station and may be explained as under Ipomœa in Note 5 . The floating power of the fruits of Colubrina oppositifolia may be akin to that of inland species of Terminalia as indicated in Note 5 , since another species of the

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NOTE 8 (pages 18, 112) The Pyrenes of Morinda

The pyrenes of the two Malayan inland species of Morinda (M. umbellata and M. longiflora) examined by Professor Schimper do not possess the bladder-like cavity to which those of M. citrifolia owe their floating power, and it is to be inferred from his remarks (p. 183) that they have little or no buoyancy. The pyrenes of a Fijian inland species, near M. Grayi, had no floating power as tested by me, and they lacked the bladder-like cavity....

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NOTE 9 (page 18) The Buoyancy of the Fruits of Calophyllum

Professor Schimper found that whilst the fruits of Calophyllum inophyllum, the shore tree, remained afloat after 126 days, those of C. amœnum, an inland species, sank in from three to fourteen days, both possessing similar buoyant structures, but to a less degree in the case of the inland species. This genus presents a parallel case to Terminalia referred to on page 17 ; but the general discussion of the subject will be found in Chapter XIII. According to the above authority C. Calaba, a West In

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NOTE 10 (page 24) The Buoyancy Experiments on British Plants

The experiments in all cases were made to test the floating power of the seed or fruit in the condition in which it is detached from the plant. It usually makes very little difference whether sea-water or fresh water is employed, since in my numerous experiments there were but few exceptions to the general rule that seeds or seed-vessels that sink in fresh water sink also in sea-water. This subject is discussed in Chapter X. However, it may be here observed that the chief effect of the increased

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NOTE 11 (page 25) The Effect of Sea-water Immersion on the Germinating Capacity of Seeds and Seed-vessels

Berkeley, Darwin, Martins, and others, long ago established the capacity of seeds to germinate after prolonged immersion in sea-water. The reader will find a resumé of their results in the appendix to Mr Hemsley’s volume on the Botany of the Challenger Expedition . The subject is well illustrated in the original papers of those authors, and in my later papers on the flora of Keeling Atoll, and on the seed-drift of the Thames. I may here remark that the earlier observers often pay more attention

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NOTE 12 (page 27) The Buoyancy of the Fruits of Galium aparine

Norman and Sernander (see p. 172) attribute considerable buoyancy to these fruits on account of the hollow cavity in each. I used to find them in England in floating river-drift in autumn; and Norman observed them on the Scandinavian beaches. They do not, however, float long, as the cavity is open; and in two sets of my experiments they sank within a few days....

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NOTE 13 (page 29) The Buoyancy of the Seeds of Convolvulus sepium

This plant seeded freely in 1893 in the Lower Thames Valley, as at Molesey. I kept some of the seeds afloat for thirty-three months, of which the first nine months were spent in sea-water and the rest in fresh-water. One seed, at the end of the period, germinated healthily in the fresh-water....

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NOTE 14 (page 26) Other Long Flotation Experiments

Whilst keeping my collections of Thames seed-drift in water from year to year, I obtained a number of records of long “flotations.” Thus in several cases, as with Bidens cernua and different species of Carex, germination of the floating fruit took place in the water after a period of two years. The same is also true of the seeds of Iris pseudacorus and of the drupes of Sparganium ramosum. The last-named remained afloat in the vessels, with the seed still sound, after four years; and the fruits o

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NOTE 15 (pages 33, 280) The Occurrence Inland of Silene maritima

Prof. Schimper appeared to be in doubt as to the inclusion of this littoral plant amongst those found in elevated mountain districts. However, an interesting note on the occurrence of this plant on the summit of one of the inland Norwegian mountains is given by Sernander (p. 405), and is referred to by me on page 280 of this work....

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NOTE 16 (page 34) The Buoyancy of the Seeds or Fruits of the British Beach-plants that also occur Inland

My experiments in the case of Armeria vulgaris, Artemisia, Cochlearia officinalis, Plantago, the maritime forms of Spergularia rubra with and without winged seeds, and Silene maritima disclose little or no floating capacity even after prolonged drying. Thuret obtained similar results for the Spergularia. It is unlikely that other plants of the group possess any floating power worth speaking of. As indicated in Note 71 , the fruits of Raphanus maritimus float only for 7 to 10 days. Nature dispers

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NOTE 17 (page 35) The Buoyancy of the Seeds or Fruits of the Group of British Littoral Plants that frequent Salt Marshes and Muddy Shores

Aster tripolium. The achenes, with or without the pappus, sink in fresh and salt water in a day or two even after a year’s drying. The small seeds, or the seed-like nucules as in Suæda, have but little floating power even after prolonged drying. Salicornia herbacea. Would be dispersed probably by floating portions of the plant, which, however, soon break down and the liberated seeds sink. The floating seedling thrives in sea-water and could be carried great distances (see Note 19 ). Salsola kali

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NOTE 18 (page 35) The Buoyancy of the Seeds or Fruits of the British Littoral Plants that are confined to the Beach

Arenaria (Honckeneya) peploides. The seeds float for many months in sea-water unharmed, 75 per cent. floating after a year. They never germinate in sea-water; but on being transferred to fresh water after many months in sea-water they germinate healthily in a few days. These seeds only float a few days in fresh water, all sinking within 10 days, and even after a year’s drying they sink in a week or two. Precisely the same results were produced in my experiments in 1892 on Cornish seeds, and in 1

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NOTE 19 (page 35) On Germination in Sea-water

During my experiments on the buoyancy of about 270 British plants, about a fourth of them (including most of those with buoyant seeds or fruits) were subjected to prolonged immersion in sea-water from periods varying from six to thirty-three months. If we except plants like Aster tripolium, Salicornia herbacea, Triglochin maritimum, &amp;c., that live normally in salt marshes, or on the muddy banks of estuaries, only one of the whole number, namely, Ranunculus sceleratus, displayed the capac

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NOTE 20 (page 42). On the Maximum Heights reached by some Shore Plants in their Extension Inland in Vanua Levu, Fiji

Since they occupy the “talasinga” districts described in the following note, these shore plants would be expected to extend as high as those districts extend, namely, to about 1,500 feet above the sea. This indeed represents their limit excepting in one instance; but many fall considerably short of this elevation. Unless otherwise stated all the plants above named are common inland, as also are Premna tahitensis , Tacca pinnatifida , Tephrosia piscatoria , Hibiscus tiliaceus , &amp;c.; but I

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NOTE 21 (pages 42, 43) On the Dwarfing of Shore Plants when extending Inland into the “Talasinga” Plains in Vanua Levu.

Premna tahitensis , 9 or 10 feet high at the coast, may here be only 3 feet high. Other trees like Morinda citrifolia become also stunted. Cerbera Odollam , a moderate-sized tree at the coast, may in the “talasinga” plains be only 4 to 6 feet high, but it here displays distinct varietal characters. Whilst the shore trees of Cerbera Odollam have broad leaves (length 3 times the breadth) with obtuse points, and short, stout flower-peduncles (1 1 ⁄ 2 -2 inches), the inland or “talasinga” species ha

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NOTE 22 (page 43) The “Talasinga” Plains of Vanua Levu, Fiji

Amongst the most conspicuous features of the north and north-west or lee sides of the large islands of Vanua Levu and Viti Levu are the extensive rolling plains that extend from the sea-border for some miles inland to the foot of the mountains. It is to those of the first-named island that the following remarks strictly apply; but no doubt they will serve equally well for those of the other island. In the first volume on the geology of Vanua Levu, reference is frequently made to this subject, an

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NOTE 23 (page 43) Schimper’s Grouping of the Indo-Malayan Strand-flora

It is divided into four formations—the Mangrove, the Nipa, the Barringtonia, and the Pes-capræ. The two last make up my Beach-formation, the Barringtonia formation comprising the trees, shrubs, &amp;c., immediately lining the beach, and the Pes capræ including the creepers and bushes of the beach itself. In the Pacific islands it is not always easy to preserve this distinction. The Nipa formation corresponds in some respects with my Intermediate or Transition formation, lying as it does betw

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NOTE 24 (page 44) Grouping of some of the Characteristic Plants of the Strand-flora of Fiji

(a) Beach-formation. —Calophyllum inophyllum, Thespesia populnea, Triumfetta procumbens, Carapa moluccensis, Canavalia obtusifolia, Vigna lutea, Pongamia glabra, Sophora tomentosa, Cæsalpinia Bonducella, Acacia laurifolia, Barringtonia speciosa, Terminalia Katappa, Gyrocarpus Jacquini, Pemphis acidula, Morinda citrifolia, Guettarda speciosa, Wedelia biflora, Scævola Kœnigii, Cordia subcordata, Tournefortia argentea, Ipomœa pes capræ, Cassytha filiformis, Hernandia peltata, Pandanus odoratissimus

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NOTE 25 (page 47) The Strand-flora of the Tahitian Region

Drake del Castillo’s Flore de la Polynésie française deals mainly with the Society or Tahitian Islands, but also with the Marquesas, Paumotus, Gambier Islands, and Wallis Island. The last-named, however, lies in Western Polynesia, and is not dealt with in this connection. There is no reason to believe, judging from the general character of the islands and from Cheeseman’s memoir on the Rarotongan flora, that the strand-plants of the islands of the Cook and Austral Groups, which also belong to th

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NOTE 26 (page 48) The Fijian Shore-plants not found in Tahiti

Although most of these plants, such as Barringtonia racemosa, Clerodendron inerme, Entada scandens, Excæcaria Agallocha, Heritiera littoralis, Smythea pacifica, &amp;c., have fruits that float for months, and could have reached Tahiti as readily as some of the beach-plants that have successfully established themselves, there are a few like Dalbergia monosperma, Derris uliginosa, and Scirpodendron costatum, the fruits of which only float for weeks, and it is possible that they may have been u

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NOTE 27 (page 49) The Intruders into the Beach-flora from the Inland Plants of Tahiti

Drake del Castillo mentions several, such as species of Boerhaavia, that could only be occasional intruders; but it is noteworthy that Gardenia tahitensis appears to be a genuine recruit from inland. The xerophilous habit of the Pacific Gardenias and their station, usually near the coast, however, would render this possible....

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NOTE 28 (page 52) The Littoral Plants of the Hawaiian Islands

5 . There are three endemic species here included which are preceded by E. Two species preceded by P are confined to Polynesia. Most of the plants are at present typically littoral, though often also occurring inland. 6 . All fruits or seeds, an inch or over in size, that could not have been transported to Hawaii by birds are regarded as large....

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NOTE 29 (page 54) Botanical Notes on the Coast-plants of the Hawaiian Islands

[The following remarks have been extracted from my journals and represent some of the field-notes of journeys made in the more interesting localities.] (1) Walk along the Puna Coast, Hawaii, from Punaluu to Hilo (Dec. 26, 1896, to Jan. 6, 1897).—For the first two to three miles to Kamehame Point, the following plants were noticed on the flows of smooth ropy lava that formed the cliff-bound coast—Capparis sandwichiana, Jacquemontia sandwicensis, Ipomœa insularis, Lipochæta lavarum, Portulaca vill

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NOTE 30 (page 58) The Beach-drift of the Hawaiian Islands

It was pointed out by Dole long ago in one of the Hawaiian Club Papers (1868) that the existing currents bring to this archipelago only huge pine logs from Oregon, but no tropical fruits; and Hillebrand (p. xiv.) refers to the driftwood of pine logs from the north-west coast of America, stranded on the shores of these islands. This drift seems to collect in quantity in particular localities, as on the south-east coast of Hawaii between Honuapo and the Kalae promontory (especially on the Kamilo b

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NOTE 31 (page 59) The Inland Extension of the Shore-plants of Hawaii

Cæsalpinia Bonducella. —According to Hillebrand, this plant, so characteristic of the littoral floras of tropical regions, grows “in gulches of the lower plains on all the islands,” no reference being made to its occurrence on the beaches. It is very rarely to be seen on the beaches of the large island of Hawaii; but it is to be found on the lava-bound coasts, and from there it extends inland usually on old lava-flows for five or six miles, and reaches sometimes considerable elevations. In one l

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NOTE 32 (pages 19, 112, 165) The Fijian Species of Premna

I was much interested in the small trees and shrubs of this genus in Fiji, more especially on account of the relation between the shore and inland species. This is an Old World genus containing some eighty species mainly characteristic of tropical Asia and Malaya, and represented in the South Pacific archipelagoes by two species, one Premna taitensis or tahitensis, spread over the region and very near P. integrifolia, an Asiatic species; the other Premna serratifolia, an Asiatic plant found in F

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NOTE 33 (page 63) De Candolle’s List of Plants dispersed exclusively by Currents

Drepanocarpus lunatus; Ecastaphyllum Brownei; Mucuna urens, D.C.; Tephrosia piscatoria; Hibiscus tiliaceus; Rhizophora mangle; Guilandina Bonduc, Linn.; Ipomœa pes capræ; Canavalia obtusifolia. I have experimented on the buoyancy of the fruits and seeds of all these plants excepting the two first named. In five species the seeds float in sea-water unharmed for several months. With Rhizophora it is the floating seedling that disperses the plant. Neither the pods nor the seeds of Tephrosia piscato

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NOTE 34 (page 64) The Littoral Plants of the Easternmost Polynesian Islands

Except in the case of Hernandia peltata my authority here is the Botany of the “Challenger” Expedition . Mr. J. H. Maiden gives some further details of the flora of Pitcairn Island in a more recent paper ( Austral. Assoc. Rep. , Melbourne, 1901, vol. 8), and Hernandia peltata is included in his list....

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NOTE 35 (page 68) Distribution of the Littoral Plants with Buoyant Seeds or Fruits that are found in the Fijian, Tongan, Samoan, Tahitian, and Hawaiian Groups

This list probably contains nearly all the species of the Polynesian region, but it is not implied that these plants have been recorded from all the groups ( vide infra ). (a) Species found only in the Old World. —Calophyllum inophyllum, Hibiscus diversifolius, Thespesia populnea, Heritiera littoralis, Kleinhovia hospita, Carapa moluccensis, C. obovata, Smythea pacifica, Colubrina asiatica, Mucuna gigantea, Erythrina indica, Strongylodon lucidum, Dalbergia monosperma, Pongamia glabra, Inocarpus

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NOTE 36 (page 72) Hawaiian Plants with Buoyant Seeds and Fruits known to be dispersed by the Currents either exclusively or, as in a few Species, with the Assistance of Frugivorous Birds

Colubrina asiatica. —Usually regarded as confined to the Old World; but since nearly all the species are American, that continent may be considered as the probable home also of this species. Hillebrand gives it a locality in the West Indies. Dioclea violacea. —Tropical America. Mucuna gigantea. —Old World. Mucuna urens. —America, and extending to the African West Coast, which is to be included in the American region of shore-plants. Strongylodon lucidum. —Old World. Vigna lutea. —Old and New Wor

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NOTE 37 (page 78) On Vivipary in the Fruits of Barringtonia racemosa and Carapa obovata

As observed by me in the Rewa delta, Fiji, there was no external evidence of such a process in the case of the fruits on the trees; but I did not pay very special attention to the matter, and it will be gathered from Chapter XXX. that the initial stage of germination may show no indication in the appearance of the fruit. More observation is needed for both species. As indicated in Note 50 , the structure of the seed of Barringtonia racemosa is suggestive of a lost viviparous habit. With regard t

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NOTE 38 (page 78) On the Temperature and Density of the Surface-water of the Estuaries of the Rewa River in Fiji, and of the Guayaquil River in Ecuador

(a) The Rewa Estuary. —My observations were made mostly in the warm, wet seasons, from October to January, 1897-99, and generally in the vicinity of the Roman Catholic Mission. The density varied usually between 1·000 and 1·010, the water being quite fresh after heavy rains inland. Though the density was usually greatest at high water, this was by no means always the case. The temperature of the water in dry weather varied from 79° to 84° F. With the river in flood after heavy rains it fell to 7

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NOTE 39 (page 82) On the Pacific Species of Strongylodon

Hillebrand in his Hawaiian Flora , following Seemann, regards S. lucidum, Seem., and S. ruber, Vogel, as one species found in Fiji, Hawaii, and Tahiti, and by the former placed also in Ceylon. Hillebrand and Seemann are followed by Drake del Castillo as regards the Tahitian species. Taubert, in his monograph on the Leguminosæ (Engler’s Pflanz. Fam. , Teil 3, Abth. 3, 1894), takes the same view of the Polynesian species and of its wide distribution. However, in the Genera Plantarum and in the Ind

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NOTE 40 (page 88) Precautions in Testing Seed-buoyancy

Many seeds and fruits require a few hours’ soaking before they sink; and when small they will rest a long time on the surface of still water, but a touch with the finger or a drop of water will send them to the bottom. A few will float a few days (3 or 4) before sinking; but such are included in the non-buoyant group. Only in rare cases does prolonged drying increase the period of flotation by more than a few days, examples being given at the end of the Table of Buoyancy results under Note 10 .

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NOTE 41 (page 91) The Buoyancy of the Seeds of Convolvulus Soldanella in Fresh Water and Sea-water compared

The experiments were commenced at the close of September, 1894, and covered six months. At the end of this period in Mr. Millett’s experiment, 56 per cent. of the seeds were afloat in fresh water, and 62 per cent. in sea-water; whilst in my own experiment 72 per cent. floated in fresh water, and 65 per cent. in sea-water. I was indebted to Mr. Millett’s courtesy for the seeds....

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NOTE 42 (page 96) On Secular Changes in Sea-density

Exact data bearing on this subject are not at my disposal; but it would seem that geologists have formed conflicting conclusions from similar premises. There is the view that the composition of the ocean water was very different in early geological periods ( Encycl. Brit. , x., 221); but I should imagine that the character of the crustacean fauna of those seas would negative any great divergence from the present condition. Suess implies that the ancient seas carried the same minerals in solution

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NOTE 43 (page 102) On the Mucosity of Small Seeds and Seed-like Fruits when wet

I paid considerable attention to this subject from the standpoint of dispersal some years ago, and published most of the results in Science Gossip for Sept., 1894. This peculiar quality of seeds had been noticed by Dr. Kerner in his Pflanzenleben (vol. i., 1887-91), and was regarded as illustrating a mode of dispersal of seeds by adherence. As a rule, such seeds when placed in water become coated with mucus in a few minutes, or within an hour, and when allowed to dry on feathers they adhere as f

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NOTE 44 (page 121) On the Effects of Inland Extension on the Buoyancy of the Seeds or Fruits of Littoral Plants

When in Fiji I experimented on the buoyancy of the following beach-plants that had extended far into the interior of Vanua Levu, as will be found described in Note 22 . Those tested were Cassytha filiformis, Cerbera Odollam, Ipomœa pes capræ, Morinda citrifolia, Premna tahitensis, Scævola Kœnigii, and Tacca pinnatifida. In all but Cerbera Odollam, where I contented myself with establishing that the fruits floated buoyantly in sea-water, the experiments were prolonged for many weeks and often for

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NOTE 45 (page 122) Tabulated Results of the Classification, according to Schimper’s Application of the Natural Selection Theory, of the Buoyant Seeds and Fruits of the Tropical Littoral Plants on the Basis of the Structural Characters concerned in Buoyancy

Note. —If to the last we add the eight British shore plants, the buoyant fruits of which are described in Chapter XII. , three non-adaptive and five adaptive, we get a proportion of adaptive species for temperate and tropical regions of fifty-one per cent. This is probably fairly typical of the world generally; but it must be remembered by the reader that the author regards them all as non-adaptive. In that case, the table can be used for the numerical results of the three groups which are based

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NOTE 46 (page 124) On the Modes of Dispersal of the Genus Brackenridgea.

Seed-vessels of this genus found afloat in the New Guinea drift are described by Mr. Hemsley as having two curved cavities crossing each other one containing a seed, the other empty. “This empty cavity,” it is stated “gives the fruit its buoyancy” ( Bot. Chall. Exped. , iii., 289; plate 54) Dr. Beccari, in the English edition of his Wanderings in Borneo , p. 187, speaks of the closed air-containing cavities in the seed-vessels, or rather “stones,” of this genus as probably giving them buoyancy a

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NOTE 47 (page 125) On the Transport of Gourds by Currents

Small calabashes or bottle-gourds are not uncommonly to be found floating in the Fijian estuaries and stranded on the beaches; and I have also found them in the sea off the coasts. They are usually more or less globular, 3 or 4 inches across, and are evidently able to float for very long periods and to carry the seeds unharmed. Most of those I examined from the drift were dry inside and contained the seeds dried together into a loose ball about an inch in size. The seeds are not those figured in

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NOTE 48 (page 126) On the Useless Dispersal by Currents of the Fruits of the Oak (Quercus robur) and other Species of Quercus, and also of the Hazel (Corylus avellana)

The fruits of different species of Quercus are of not infrequent occurrence in the seed-drift both of the temperate and tropical regions, being brought down by the rivers to the sea and then stranded on the neighbouring beaches. They were amongst the drift gathered by Mr. Moseley in the open sea, 70 miles off the New Guinea coast ( Bot. Chall. Exped. , iv., 294). I found them on the beaches of Keeling Atoll where no oak exists, and on the beaches of the south coast of Java; whilst Prof. Schimper

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NOTE 49 (page 131) On the Distribution of Ipomœa pes capræ, Convolvulus soldanella, and Convolvulus sepium

Whilst Ipomœa pes capræ is cosmopolitan in the tropical zones, Convolvulus soldanella is cosmopolitan in both the north and south temperate zones; but, as might be expected, the two species at times meet and their areas overlap. Thus, according to Mr. Cheeseman ( Trans. New Zealand Inst. , xx., 1887), they meet in the Kermadec Islands, in the South Pacific, in about latitude 30°. From my observations on the coast of Chile it would seem that C. soldanella in its northward extension fails somewher

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NOTE 50 (pages 79, 132) On the Structure of the Seeds and Fruits of Barringtonia

As regards the fruits and their coverings, the littoral and inland species of Fiji evidently fall into different sections, the first named (B. speciosa and B. racemosa) being distinguished by their outer fibrous husk, to which the buoyancy is due, the last-named (B. edulis and an undescribed species) possessing a hard stone surrounding the seed, and here the fruits sink or float only for limited periods. The fruits of B. edulis have an outer almost fleshy covering, a little fibrous at the outsid

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NOTE 51 (page 135) On a Common Inland Species of Scævola in Vanua Levu, Fiji

This is a tall shrub, or small tree, nine or ten feet high, which corresponds with S. floribunda, Gray, as far as Seemann describes it. It has small, black, juicy drupes, well suited for dispersal by birds, having no “suberous” mesocarp as in the shore species (S. Kœnigii), and no capacity for dispersal by currents. It grows, much like the Hawaiian inland species, in exposed situations where there is plenty of light, as on mountain-peaks, at the borders of forests, in open-wooded districts, and

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NOTE 52 (page 137). On the Capacity for Dispersal by Currents of Colubrina oppositifolia, an Inland Hawaiian Tree

The seeds in my experiments sank within ten days; but they are not readily detached from the fruit, as in the case of the buoyant seeds of the littoral species (C. asiatica). The fruits, which may float for a week or two, break down, as Hillebrand observes, tardily and imperfectly, and could give but little assistance to dispersal by water....

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NOTE 53 (page 141) On the Genus Erythrina

We have in E. indica a widely distributed littoral species, ranging from India through Malaya to eastern Australia, and over nearly all the groups of the Pacific, reaching to Tahiti and the Marquesas, but not occurring in Hawaii. It is associated in Fiji and Tonga with another shore-species, E. ovalifolia, Roxb., found also in India and Malaya. I did not come on the second species in Fiji, and according to Seemann it is rare. It is possible that there is a genetic connection between the two; and

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NOTE 54 (page 145) On the Genus Canavalia

Of the three maritime species, C. obtusifolia, D.C., occurs on beaches all round the tropical zone. I was familiar with it on North Keeling Island in the Indian Ocean, in Fiji, and in Ecuador. C. ensiformis, D.C., is just as widely spread; but it is both inland and maritime in its station, and except when collecting it in the Solomon Islands I have had but little acquaintance with it. C. sericea (Gray) is a characteristic beach-plant in Fiji, but is infrequent. In Rarotonga, according to Cheesem

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NOTE 55 (page 42 and Note 20) The Inland Extension of Scævola Kœnigii

Scævola sericea (Forst.), a hairy variety of this littoral plant, will probably prove in some localities to be the inland form of the species. Dr. Reinecke, who mentions only this variety for Samoa, says that it is found in very moist ground in river-ravines, and no other station is referred to. It would seem that both the glabrous and hairy forms occur in Hawaii. Dr. Seemann speaks of the hairy variety as littoral in Fiji....

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NOTE 56 (page 149) On the Capacity for Dispersal by Currents of Sophora tomentosa, S. chrysophylla, and S. tetraptera

(1) Sophora tomentosa, Linn. —The moniliform pods will float for few weeks, but it is to the seeds liberated by the breaking down of the pod that the wide dispersal of this beach-plant by the currents is due. When experimenting on the freshly obtained seeds in Fiji I found that four-fifths of them floated after three months in sea-water. With seeds that had been kept for three years, half floated after twelve months and retained their sound condition. The seeds owe their floating power to the bu

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NOTE 57 (page 153) On the Species of Ochrosia

Schumann distinguishes the following species: ( a ) O. parviflora, Hensl., widely spread in the Pacific islands. ( b ) O. compta, Schumann, confined to Hawaii and corresponding to var. B. of O. sandwicensis as given by Hillebrand. ( c ) O. borbonica, Spr., synonym O. oppositifolia, Lam., from Mauritius and Madagascar to Java and Singapore. ( d ) Both probably varieties of O. borbonica. O. sandwicensis, Gray, of Hawaii. O. elliptica, Lab., of New Caledonia. ( e ) O. parviflora, Schumann, of New G

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NOTE 58 (page 156) On Pandanus (from Warburg)

(a) The size (length) of the drupes of endemic species in oceanic islands. —The drupes of P. reineckei of Samoa are 4-5 cm. (1 3 ⁄ 5 -2 inches). Those of P. joskei and P. thurstonii in Fiji measure respectively 6 cm. (2 2 ⁄ 5 inch) and 2 1 ⁄ 2 cm. (1 inch). Out of about sixteen species in the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodriquez) quite half have drupes 2- 3 1 ⁄ 2 cm. ( 4 ⁄ 5 - 1 2 ⁄ 5 inch) in size, whilst they run up to 8 or 10 cm. (3-4 inches), and may be less than a centimetre

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NOTE 59 (page 188) Seeds in Petrels

Darwin, in his correspondence (1859) with Sir Joseph Hooker, refers to the occurrence of large West Indian seeds in the crops of some nestling petrels observed by Sir William Milner at St. Kilda ( Life and Letters , II, 147, 148). Mr. Charles Dixon in Ibis (1885) refers to Sir W. Milner’s observation in the case of the Fulmar Petrel (Procellaria glacialis) and speaks of them as Brazilian seeds brought by the Gulf Stream, adding that he himself found a nut in the crop of one of these birds in the

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NOTE 60 (page 202) Schimper on the Halophilous Character of Littoral Leguminosæ and of Shore Plants generally

As a result of extensive microchemical investigations, this eminent German botanist arrived at the conclusion that plants living on the sea-shore, or in inland stations rich in chlorides, are able, as a rule, to store up in their tissues a large quantity of these salts, a capacity enabling them to live in localities where the subsoil is rich in these materials. This inference, as shown in his experiments, is just as applicable to the shore-plants of temperate regions, such as Aster tripolium, Cr

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NOTE 61 (page 215) Meteorological Observations on the Summit of Mauna Loa

The summit is formed of bare rock and sand, the phanerogamic vegetation ceasing a couple of thousand feet below. Some low plant-forms doubtless occur under the moist, warm conditions near the steam-cracks, since Wilkes mentions his finding a small moss; but with this exception the surface may be described as sterile. Dryness of the Air and Electrical Phenomena. —Wilkes refers to the association of these conditions more than once in his narrative. Whenever, as sometimes happened, the dew point co

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NOTE 62 (page 222) On the Relative Proportion of Vascular Cryptogams in Fiji

According to Seemann’s work, where about 617 indigenous flowering plants and about 195 ferns and lycopods are enumerated, the vascular cryptogams would form about 24 per cent. of the whole flora. (All weeds and cultivated plants are here excluded.) The vascular cryptogams, however, seem to figure too prominently in Seemann’s collections. From Horne’s data, who says that he added 363 flowering plants to the flora, the flowering plants would amount to about 980; and since Baker implies, in Trimen’

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NOTE 63 (page 222) On the Table of Vascular Cryptogams of Tahiti, Hawaii, and Fiji

In the case of Tahiti, I have gone carefully through the list given by Drake del Castillo, comparing it with other Polynesian lists given by Seemann, Horne, Hillebrand, Hemsley, &amp;c., and have reduced his endemic species from 19 to 13. The same thing has been done with Hillebrand’s list for Hawaii, some of his species having been found in other parts of Polynesia, thus reducing the endemic species from 75 to 70. The data relating to Fiji are referred to in Note 62 ....

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NOTE 64 (page 223) On the Distribution of the Tahitian Ferns and Lycopods

I have arranged them as follows, according to the distributions given by Drake del Castillo:—Cosmopolitan, 5; Tropics of Old and New Worlds, 33; Tropics of Old World, mainly Indo-Malaya, 58; “Océanie,” including Australia, 17; Polynesia, 26; South America, 2; peculiar to Tahiti, 13: total, 154. Out of 141 non-endemic Tahitian species, 107 at least have been recorded from the Fijian area comprising Samoa and Tonga, and 42 from Hawaii. Of the last, all but four occur also in Fiji. There is thus a

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NOTE 66 (page 226) Endemic Genera of Ferns in Hawaii

Hillebrand gives two genera of ferns peculiar to Hawaii, one, Sadleria of Kaulfuss, “scarcely distinct from Blechnum,” and containing four species; the other, Schizostege, constituted by himself, and represented by a single species found in only one or two of the islands....

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NOTE 67 (page 241) On the Dispersal of Compositæ by Birds

The goldfinch’s habit of pecking at the heads of thistles, and pulling out the achenes in bundles, is well known. Gätke mentions two suggestive instances of birds feeding on the fruits of a Composite plant. According to this observer, the Scarlet Grosbeak (Pyrrhula erythrina), when it alights on Heligoland, always feeds on the achenes of Sonchus oleraceus, which it picks off the plant; whilst the Parrot Crossbill (Loxia sp.), feeds in Heligoland on burrs and thistles ( Heligoland as an Ornitholo

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NOTE 68 (page 264) On some of the Hawaiian Endemic Genera, excluding those of the Compositæ and Lobeliaceæ

Haplostachys, Phyllostegia, and Stenogyne, all Labiate Genera. —Phyllostegia is not strictly peculiar to Hawaii, since out of the 17 species enumerated in the Index Kewensis , 15 are Hawaiian, 1 Tahitian, and 1 is accredited to Unalaska (one of the Aleutian Islands). The last locality appears to be an error. The species in question is P. microphylla, Benth.; and on looking up the original authority in Linnæa (vi. 570, 1831), I find the locality is thus given: “insula coralligena Romanzoffii,” wh

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NOTE 69 (page 366) On the Germination of Cuscuta

My observations were made on the Hawaiian endemic species (C. sandwichiana) and on a Fijian introduced species. Germination occurs readily in fresh water, the floating seedling growing rapidly. When the germinating seed is placed on wet soil in the shade, the seedling grows at the rate of 3 ⁄ 4 inch (19 mm.) a day. The store of nutriment contained in the swollen radicular end will support the seedling for a couple of days, and if it has not then found a host it withers and dies. At first lying p

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NOTE 70 (pages 477, 480-1) On Beach-Temperature

My data are rather scanty; but, judging from observations made in Hawaii, in South America, and in the south of England, the following scale would probably be true of typical beaches where the sand is found relatively cool and moist at a depth of four or five inches. This moisture seems to arise entirely from subsoil drainage seaward. When a beach fronts an arid, rainless region, few if any plants grow on it; the sand is loose, hot, and dry at the depth indicated; and the temperature of the surf

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NOTE 71 (page 479) On the Buoyancy of the Seeds or Seed-vessels of some Chilian Shore Plants

(1) Nolana , probably paradoxa . Common on the beaches of Southern Chile. The ripe drupes have a somewhat fleshy outer covering which they lose when lying on the sand, and present themselves then as dark-brown angular “stones,” often five to six millimetres across. Inside the outer hard covering of the stone is a layer of spongy tissue which gives it buoyancy; but since these coverings are wanting at the scars marking the basal insertion of the drupe, the embryo seems insufficiently protected ag

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NOTE 72 (page 483) The Southern Limit of the Mangrove Formation in Ecuador.

... The southern limit of the mangrove formation on the west coast of South America is usually placed at 4° S. lat.; but it is probable that the vicinity of Tumbez in lat. 3° 30ʹ S. would be more correct. Baron von Eggers would place it rather further to the north-east, near the frontier of Ecuador and Peru in lat. 3° 20ʹ S. I spent eight days in the locality last named and saw no evidence of the beginning of the mangrove-formation....

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NOTE 73 (page 495) Additional Note on the Temperature of the Dry Coast of Ecuador between Puna Island and the Equator.

... Baron von Eggers gives the mean annual temperature for El Recreo, about half a degree south of the equator, at 75° F., which is near that of Rio de Janeiro in lat 23° S. on the east coast of the continent. Mr. F. P. Walker has kindly given me the results of temperature-observations covering a period of ten years, taken in the room for testing cables at Santa Elena Point (2° 10ʹ S.), usually about 6·30 a.m. The range of the monthly means was 71° F. (August) to 79·1° (March), and the mean for

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NOTE 74 (page 495) Observations on the Temperature of the Humboldt Current from Antofagasta Northward, between January and March, 1904 (Fahrenheit scale)

The observations were usually taken at the anchorages, but in some places, as at Ancon and Puerto Bolivar, they were taken from a boat outside the roadstead. If we wish to ascertain how the Humboldt Current retains its cool temperature as it advances through the tropics to the equator, a glance at the following table will show that the surface-temperatures can aid us but slightly, since they do not vary in accordance with the latitude, a subject further discussed below. We can, however, obtain s

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NOTE 75 (page 496) On the Stranded Massive Corals apparently of the Genus Porites found on the Coast of Peru and North Chile, at Arica (18° 25ʹ S.), Callao (12° 3ʹ S.), and Ancon (11° 45ʹ S.)

At Arica they occurred on the beach only. At Callao they also extended inland on the low spit at Punta for about 100 yards. At Ancon they were found not only on the beach but also twenty or thirty paces inland on the low adjoining plains. Their size varied from three inches to three feet. They were all more or less rounded by wave action, and were extensively burrowed by boring molluscs. Whilst some on the beach still displayed the dried-up soft parts of the boring mollusc, others inland were fa

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NOTE 76 (page 429) Stranded Pumice on English and Scandinavian Beaches

Sernander, in his description of the Atlantic drift of the Scandinavian coast, refers to the occurrence of a small amount of true pumice. I have found solitary fragments of acid pumice well rounded by wave-action at Croyde Bay on the north coast of Devonshire, at the mouth of Salcombe Harbour on the south coast of the same county, and at Maenporth, near Falmouth, in Cornwall. Steamer slag, in some cases rudely simulating pumice, is common on all the South of England beaches I have examined. It i

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NOTE 77 (page 21) On the Mode of Dispersal of Kleinhovia hospita

This small tree has a very wide distribution in the tropics, ranging from East Africa and the Mascarene Islands through India, South-eastern Asia, Malaya, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands to Fiji and Tahiti. It is a plant that grows in inland open woods as well as amongst the littoral trees on the beach; and it is always doubtful (in Malaya, Fiji, and Samoa) whether to regard it as a shore plant or as an inland plant, different authors varying on this point. In Vanua Levu I formed the opinion

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NOTE 78 (page 436) On the “Sea”: an Unidentified Wild Fruit-tree in Fiji

This is a fair-sized forest tree common in places in the lower forests. I have never been able to identify it; but a “putamen” which was sent to the Kew Museum was named Spondias with a query. It is to be hoped its true botanical name will be discovered by one of my successors. Seemann places it amongst the “desiderata” concerning which further information is needed. The fruit is a drupe 2 to 2 1 ⁄ 2 inches long possessing a pleasant fruity odour and inclosing a hard two-celled stone about 1 2 ⁄

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NOTE 79 (page 395) On Willow-leaved River-side Plants

A number of observers, beginning with Humboldt, in his Ansichten der Nature , and including Seemann, L. H. Grindon, Ridley, Beccari, and others, have referred to what is called “stenophyllism” in plants. These willow-leaved river-side plants are found all over the globe, such plants usually growing close to the water’s edge in situations where they are liable to be more or less submerged when the river is in flood. Seemann, Beccari, and Ridley mention more than two dozen genera belonging to a gr

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NOTE 80 (pages 255, 504) Mr. Perkins on the Hawaiian Lobeliaceæ (Fauna hawaiiensis, vol. I.)

My view, that the early Hawaiian Lobeliaceæ acquired the monstrous form of their flowers in the humid forests of a later age, is supported by the observations of Mr. Perkins on the connection between the highly-specialised nectar-eating Drepanids of Hawaii and the highly-specialised flowers of the Tree-Lobelias, a subject further discussed in Chapter XXXIII. This naturalist ascertained, in the case of one of the trees, that fertilisation could only be effected by these birds. So close is the bio

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NOTE 81 On the Vertical Range of some of the most Typical and most Conspicuous of the Plants in the Forests on the Hamakua Slopes of Mauna Kea, Hawaii

During a descent of this mountain on its north side to near Ookala, the conditions were unusually favourable for recording the range of altitude for some of the plants easily recognisable. Acacia koa began at 6,700 feet, and extended down to 2,300 feet. Rubus (“akala”) began at 6,500 feet, and extended down to 2,500 feet. Cheirodendron (“olapa”) began at 6,400 feet, and extended down to 2,200 feet. Cyanea, a lobeliad growing on trunks of tree-ferns, began at 4,000 feet, and extended down to 2,30

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NOTE 82 (page 416) Aboriginal Weeds[7]

7 . Seemann is the principal authority, the results of his examination of the old collections being given in his Flora Vitiensis . Species regarded by Hillebrand as indigenous in Hawaii or as existing in that group at the time of its discovery by Cook are indicated by H in the second column....

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NOTES 83-89 omitted NOTE 90 (page 29) On the Buoyancy of the Seeds of Euphorbia amygdaloides and E. segetalis

The seeds of both species have no proper buoyancy, and display no structure in their testas suggesting it; though, through the shrinking of the nucleus, a temporary floating power may be acquired with less mature or imperfect seeds. They support the general principle indicated for the British species on page 29 ....

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NOTE 91 Mr. E. Kay Robinson on the Dispersal of Aster tripolium

According to this naturalist, the seeds of this plant are eaten in winter by snow-buntings on the English east coast. In reply to my query he tells me that the “draggled fluff still containing seeds” might easily adhere to birds ( The Country-Side , Sept. 30, 1905)....

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