APPENDIXList of Notes

Note 1. On the number of known species of Fijian flowering plants.

Note 2. The littoral plants of Fiji.

Note 3. Results of long flotation experiments on the seeds or seedvessels of tropical littoral plants.

Note 4. Table illustrating the degree of buoyancy of the seeds and fruits of inland Fijian plants.

Note 5. The inland Fijian plants possessing buoyant seeds or fruits.

Note 6. Table showing the degree of buoyancy of the seeds and fruits of some inland Hawaiian plants.

Note 7. Some inland Hawaiian plants possessing buoyant seeds or fruits.

Note 8. The pyrenes of Morinda.

Note 9. The buoyancy of the fruits of Calophyllum.

Note 10. The buoyancy experiments on British plants.

Note 11. The effect of sea-water immersion on the germinating capacity of seeds and seed-vessels.

Note 12. The buoyancy of the fruits of Galium aparine.

Note 13. The buoyancy of the seeds of Convolvulus sepium.

Note 14. Other long flotation experiments.

Note 15. The occurrence inland of Silene maritima.

Note 16. The buoyancy of the seeds or fruits of the British beach-plants that also occur inland.

Note 17. The buoyancy of the seeds or fruits of the British littoral plants that frequent salt-marshes and muddy shores.

Note 18. The buoyancy of the seeds or fruits of the British littoral plants that are confined to the beach.

Note 19. On germination in sea-water.

Note 20. On the maximum heights reached by some shore plants in their extension inland in Vanua Levu, Fiji.

Note 21. On the dwarfing of shore plants when extending inland in the “talasinga” plains in Vanua Levu.

Note 22. The “talasinga” plains of Vanua Levu.

Note 23. Schimper’s grouping of the Indo-Malayan strand flora.

Note 24. Grouping of some of the characteristic plants of the strand flora of Fiji.

Note 25. The strand flora of the Tahitian region.

Note 26. The Fijian shore plants not found in Tahiti.

Note 27. The intruders into the beach flora from the inland plants of Tahiti.

Note 28. The littoral plants of the Hawaiian islands.

Note 29. Botanical notes on the coast plants of the Hawaiian islands.

Note 30. The beach drift of the Hawaiian islands.

Note 31. The inland extension of the shore plants of the Hawaiian islands.

Note 32. The Fijian species of Premna.

Note 33. De Candolle’s list of plants dispersed exclusively by currents.

Note 34. The littoral plants of the eastern-most Polynesian islands.

Note 35. Distribution of the littoral plants with buoyant seeds or fruits that occur in the Fijian, Tongan, Samoan, Tahitian, and Hawaiian Groups.

Note 36. Hawaiian plants with buoyant seeds or fruits known to be dispersed by the currents either exclusively or with the assistance of frugivorous birds.

Note 37. On vivipary in the fruits of Barringtonia racemosa and Carapa obovata.

Note 38. 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.

Note 39. On the Pacific species of Strongylodon.

Note 40. Precautions in testing seed-buoyancy.

Note 41. The buoyancy of the seeds of Convolvulus soldanella in fresh-water and sea-water compared.

Note 42. On secular changes in sea-density.

Note 43. On the mucosity of small seeds and seed-like fruits when wet.

Note 44. Upon the effects of inland extension on the buoyancy of the seeds or fruits of littoral plants.

Note 45. Tabulated results of the classification, according to Schimper’s application of the Natural Selection Theory, of the buoyant seeds and fruits of tropical littoral plants.

Note 46. On the modes of dispersal of the genus Brackenridgea.

Note 47. On the transport of gourds by currents.

Note 48. On the useless dispersal by currents of the fruits of the Oak and of other species of Quercus, as well as of the Hazel (Corylus).

Note 49. On the distribution of Ipomœa pes capræ, Convolvulus soldanella, and Convolvulus sepium.

Note 50. On the structure of the seeds and fruits of Barringtonia.

Note 51. On a common inland species of Scævola in Vanua Levu, Fiji.

Note 52. On the capacity for dispersal by currents of Colubrina oppositifolia.

Note 53. On the genus Erythrina.

Note 54. On the genus Canavalia.

Note 55. The inland extension of Scævola kœnigii.

Note 56. On the capacity for dispersal by currents of Sophora tomentosa, S. chrysophylla, and S. tetraptera.

Note 57. On the species of Ochrosia.

Note 58. On Pandanus.

Note 59. Seeds in petrels.

Note 60. Schimper on the halophilous character of littoral Leguminosæ and of shore plants generally.

Note 61. Meteorological observations on the summit of Mauna Loa.

Note 62. On the relative proportion of vascular cryptogams in Fiji.

Note 63. On the table of vascular cryptogams of Tahiti, Hawaii, and Fiji.

Note 64. On the distribution of the Tahitian ferns and lycopods.

Note 65. Distribution of some of the mountain ferns of Hawaii that are not found either in Fiji or in Tahiti.

Note 66. Endemic genera of ferns in Hawaii.

Note 67. On the dispersal of Compositæ by birds.

Note 68. On some of the Hawaiian endemic genera excluding those of the Compositæ and Lobeliaceæ.

Note 69. On the germination of Cuscuta.

Note 70. On beach-temperature.

Note 71. On the buoyancy of the seeds or seed-vessels of some Chilian shore plants.

Note 72. On the southern limit of the mangrove formation in Ecuador.

Note 73. Additional note on the temperature of the dry coast of Ecuador, between the island of Puna and the equator.

Note 74. Observations on the temperature of the Humboldt current from Antofagasta northward between January and March, 1904.

Note 75. On the stranded massive corals of the genus Porites (?) found on the coast of North Chile and Peru at Arica, Callao, and Ancon.

Note 76. Stranded pumice on English and Scandinavian beaches.

Note 77. On the mode of dispersal of Kleinhovia hospita.

Note 78. On the “Sea”, an unidentified wild fruit tree in Fiji.

Note 79. On willow-leaved river-side plants.

Note 80. Mr. Perkins on the Hawaiian Lobeliaceæ.

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.

Note 82. Aboriginal weeds.

Note 90. On the buoyancy of the seeds of Euphorbia amygdaloides and E. segetalis.

Note 91. Mr. E. Kay Robinson on Aster tripolium.

Rather over 600 species of flowering plants are included in Seemann’sFlora 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.

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 over much the same ground in the Malayan region, one enjoys in many cases the great advantage of his authority; but a fair proportion of the results are new; and, besides, there are a number of plants included, the buoyancy of whose seeds or fruits has long been well established. In all cases the seed or fruit is taken as it presents itself for dispersal by the currents. Many of the plants are discussed with some detail in various parts of this book, as indicated in the reference column of the table.

Since the Gramineæ and the Cyperaceæ contain very few species suited for direct transport by the currents over wide areas of sea, this list may be regarded as containing nearly all the littoral flowering plants possessing seeds or seed-vessels with any buoyancy of importance.

Nearly all the Tahitian strictly littoral plants are represented in Fiji, and the few that have not been found there yet, such as Sesbania grandiflora, Heliotropium anomalum, &c., may exist, as in the first-named species, in the neighbouring Tongan group, and may probably even exist in Fiji. Two other Tahitian littoral plants, that are widely spread in the Pacific, namely, Suriana maritima and Sesuvium Portulacastrum, are found in Tonga, and are included in my list of Fijian shore plants, though not yet recorded from that group, where, however, they will, without a doubt, be found by some future observer.

Table showing the Buoyancy of the Seeds or Fruits of the Littoral Plants of Fiji, excluding the Grasses and, with one exception, the Sedges

The letters placed before the plant name indicate that the species is also found in Hawaii (H), in Tahiti (T), and in the Marquesas (M). The Marquesan locality is only given where the plant is not in Tahiti.

The abbreviations in the reference column are as follows:

S=Schimper; G=Guppy; P=Earlier authorities and particularly the list given by Hemsley in the Introduction to theBotany of the Challenger Expedition.

Table showing the Buoyancy of the Seeds or Fruits of theLittoral Plants of Fiji, excluding the Grasses, and withone exception, the Sedges(continued)

Table showing the Buoyancy of the Seeds or Fruits of the

Littoral Plants of Fiji, excluding the Grasses, and with

one exception, the Sedges(continued)

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, &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 can be no doubt that the number of successful results would have been largely increased, if I had not been obliged to resort to very primitive methods in conducting the experiments. Some of the results are referred to in a note to my paper on the flora of Keeling Atoll, dated about 1889; and if I remember aright, Mr. Hemsley mentioned those relating to Thespesia populnea and Ipomœa grandiflora in theAnnals of Botany, not long after. The others have not been previously published. In one instance (Cæsalpinia bonducella) the flotation experiment was prolonged to two and a half years, the seeds floating buoyantly and being apparently quite sound at the end of the experiment.

As demonstrating that tropical seeds can be transported unharmed by currents through cold latitudes, it should be noted that all these experiments were conducted in England. In the cases of the Keeling Atoll seeds the experiment was carried on through a very severe winter, the vessel of sea-water being exposed to a degree of cold that kept fresh-water frozen for three weeks on the same table. This did not prevent the subsequent germination of the seeds of Thespesia populnea and Ipomœa grandiflora. The same thing was established in a more natural way by Lindman, who planted seeds of Entada scandens and Mucuna urens, that had been stranded on the Norwegian coast, and found that they retained their germinating capacity (see Sernander, p. 7).

The following are the seeds or seed-vessels that remained afloat after a year’s flotation in sea-water, those that subsequently germinated being preceded by G. In the other cases the germinating capacity was not tested; but they were always sound in appearance when cut across at the close of the experiment.

(Unless otherwise indicated, the seeds or fruits sink at once or in a day or two)

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 inChapter III.

(b) Plants following the rule deduced by Schimper for Terminalia, that when a genus comprises several species possessing buoyant fruits, only those having fruits with the greatest floating power are found at the coast, the least buoyant plants occurring inland; examples, Calophyllum and Guettarda.

(c) Plants that like Ipomœa behave irregularly in respect to seed-buoyancy, a difference in behaviour often associated with varying stations both at the coast and inland.

(d) Plants with dehiscent buoyant capsular fruits, like Sterculia, where dehiscence takes place on the tree and the seeds have no buoyancy. Although the unopened fruit may float a long time, it does not in that condition come under the influence of the currents.

(e) Plants like Citrus Decumana, Gardenia, sp., &c., that, although apparently exceptions to the principle, do not offer much opposition to it, since the first is most at home at the river-side and the second often displays a decided inclination for a station at the coast.

(f) Genuine exceptions to the principle, such as Hibiscus Abelmoschus (see page21).

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