Section IV
Here we deal with two genera, Pandanus and Barringtonia, where inland endemic species occur in the same group with the wide-ranging coast species, but possess fruits concerning which it is either difficult or almost impossible to suggest a mode of dispersal by existing agencies. This section is especially concerned with Fiji, and represents the peculiar “Fijian difficulty” that is illustrated by other genera as—for instance, the Coniferous genus Dammara—which are not in any sense littoral. Further investigation is, however, requisite in the case of Barringtonia, and to a less degree with Pandanus; and I can only here point to the general indications of the data at my disposal. We have in these genera to assume either that the inland species are derived from the coast species, or that the seeds were brought by one of the extinct birds of the Western Pacific, by a megapode or by one of the Columbæ, or by some Struthious bird like the moa or the cassowary, or, if these two assumptions fail, that there has been a continental connection through the islands to the westward with the mainland beyond.