Tonga,  Fiji,  Hawaii,  &c.,  and  was  gathered  by  Banks  and  Solander
when  Captain  Cook  first  visited  Tahiti.  That  this  plant  has  been
distributed  by  geese,  ducks,  and  waterfowl  over  the  tropics  of  the
globe  can  scarcely  be  doubted.  In  England  I  have  found  the
nutlets  of  Polygonum  convolvulus,  P.  persicaria,  and  P.  aviculare
in  the  stomachs  of  a  wild  duck  and  a  curlew  ;  and  they  came
frequently  under  my  notice  in  the  crops  and  intestines  of  different
kinds  of  partridges  and  of  wood-pigeons.  Though  most  of  the
fruits  were  generally  injured,  a  few  of  them  were  not  uncommonly
obtained  in  a  sound  condition,

PiPTURUS  (Urticaceae). — This  is  a  genus  of  small  trees  and
shrubs  found  in  the  Mascarene  Islands,  Malaya,  Australia,  New
Zealand,  and  throughout  Polynesia.  Besides  P.  albidus,  which  is
confined  to  Hawaii  and  Tahiti,  there  are  two  Malayan  species^
P.  argenteus  and  P.  velutinus,  which  are  widely  distributed  over  the
islands  of  the  South  Pacific,  extending  to  Tahiti  and  the  Marquesas.
The  fleshy  receptacle  and  small  achenes  of  the  compound  fruit  of
Pipturus  give  it  the  appearance  of  a  white  immature  strawberry,
and  as  such  it  would  be  likely  to  attract  frugivorous  birds.  Plants
of  this  genus  are  included  amongst  the  numerous  plants  from  the
bast  of  which  the  natives  used  to  prepare  their  native  cloth  or  from
which  they  obtained  the  fibres  for  their  fishing-lines.
Bgehmeria  (Urticaceae). — There  is  an  Asiatic  species  widely
spread  in  the  South  Pacific  and  another  closely-allied  species  in
Hawaii ;  but  I  possess  no  data  relating  to  the  dispersal  of  the
genus.  The  fruits  are  dry  and  consist  of  an  achene  in  a  persistent
perianth.
