I Do Not
Include In The Above List The Sugar-Cane, Banana, Some Other
Vegetables, Fruit-Trees, And Imported Grasses.
As the islands
consist entirely of coral, and at one time must have existed
as mere water-washed reefs, all their terrestrial productions
must have been transported here by the waves of the sea.
In accordance with this, the Florula has quite the character
of a refuge for the destitute:
Professor Henslow informs
me that of the twenty species nineteen belong to different
genera, and these again to no less than sixteen families! [1]
In Holman's [2] Travels an account is given, on the authority
of Mr. A. S. Keating, who resided twelve months on these
islands, of the various seeds and other bodies which have
been known to have been washed on shore. "Seeds and
plants from Sumatra and Java have been driven up by the
surf on the windward side of the islands. Among them have
been found the Kimiri, native of Sumatra and the peninsula
of Malacca; the cocoa-nut of Balci, known by its shape and
size; the Dadass, which is planted by the Malays with the
pepper-vine, the latter intwining round its trunk, and
supporting itself by the prickles on its stem; the soap-tree;
the castor-oil plant; trunks of the sago palm; and various kinds
of seeds unknown to the Malays settled on the islands.
These are all supposed to have been driven by the N. W.
monsoon to the coast of New Holland, and thence to these
islands by the S. E. trade-wind.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 699 of 776
Words from 187353 to 187615
of 208183
