Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

542 KEELING ISLAND. April, 1836. In Holman's* Travels, an account is given on the autho- rity 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-\ane, 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 who settled on the islands. These are all supposed to have been driven on shore by the N.W. monsoon to the coast of New Holland, and thence to these islands by the S.E. trade- wind. Large masses of Java teak, and yellow wood, have also been found, besides immense trees, of red and white cedar, and the blue gum-wood of New Holland, in a per- fectly sound condition. All the hardy seeds, such as creepers, retain their germinating power, but the softer kinds, among which is the mangostin, are destroyed in the passage. Fishing-canoes, apparently from Java, have at times been washed on shore." It is interesting thus to discover how numerous the seeds are, which, coming from several countries, are 4rifted over the wide ocean. Pro- fessor Henslow tells me, he believes that nearly all the plants which I brought from this island, are common littoral species in the East Indian archipelago. From the direction, however, of the winds and currents, it seems scarcely possible that they can have come here in a direct line. If, as suggested with much probabiUty by Mr. Keating, they have first been carried towards the coast of New Holland, and thence drifted back again, together with the productions of * Holman's Travels, vol. iv., p. 378.