The Next Morning After Anchoring, I Went On Shore On
Direction Island.
The strip of dry land is only a few hundred
yards in width; on the lagoon side there is
A white calcareous
beach, the radiation from which under this sultry
climate was very oppressive; and on the outer coast, a solid
broad flat of coral-rock served to break the violence of the
open sea. Excepting near the lagoon, where there is some
sand, the land is entirely composed of rounded fragments of
coral. In such a loose, dry, stony soil, the climate of the
intertropical regions alone could produce a vigorous vegetation.
On some of the smaller islets, nothing could be more
elegant than the manner in which the young and full-grown
cocoa-nut trees, without destroying each other's symmetry,
were mingled into one wood. A beach of glittering white
sand formed a border to these fairy spots.
I will now give a sketch of the natural history of these
islands, which, from its very paucity, possesses a peculiar
interest. The cocoa-nut tree, at first glance, seems to
compose the whole wood; there are however, five or six
other trees. One of these grows to a very large size, but
from the extremes of softness of its wood, is useless; another
sort affords excellent timber for ship-building. Besides the
trees, the number of plants is exceedingly limited, and consists
of insignificant weeds. In my collection, which includes,
I believe, nearly the perfect Flora, there are twenty
species, without reckoning a moss, lichen, and fungus. To
this number two trees must be added; one of which was not
in flower, and the other I only heard of. The latter is a
solitary tree of its kind, and grows near the beach, where,
without doubt, the one seed was thrown up by the waves. A
Guilandina also grows on only one of the islets. 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.
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Words from 187035 to 187615
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