Cocos plantations The planting of Cocos began with the European discovery of the island. A few trees were found by Cook's party and other nuts were planted. The extent of the Cocos areas was increased during the development of the island by Father Rougier who planted large areas on the NW, N, NE and SW sides of the islands comprising the plantations found along the slopes of the high areas. Copra production continues at present. The extension of the Cocos groves is being carried out at the rate of 1200 acres per year. This operation is under the direction of Mr. Cook the District Commissioner for the Line Islands. Planting is at present centered on the NW and N sides of the island along the highway built by the military during the bomb test era. The plantations have a cover of Lepturus and Portulaca with Boerhavia and Sida at the fringes of the open areas. Large acreages have been cleared of Scaevola - Tournefortia scrub. Tribulus thrives in some of the open areas where the newly sprouting coconuts are planted. Mr. Cook is expanding the facilities in the village of London for sprouting coconuts before planting. He has found from experience that better success is achieved by using this method. During 1964 a dry period browned many of the fronds on the mature trees and production was hampered. The groves on the SW side were particularly dry and this continued into 1965. The larger number of introduced species are found in the village at London and on the N side in the heavily disrupted area around the airport where facilities existed for the support of several thousand military personnel. Pluchea odorata and P. indica are found in this area along with the sterile but aggressive hybrid between these two species. The hybrid has become a common weed in the Hawaiian Islands and is also found on Palmyra Island also in the Line Group. This hybrid and one parent, P. odorata are found along the roads and old barracks. P. odorata is common at the open edges of the Cocos groves adjacent to the heavily used areas. On the SW side at Paris Pluchea odorata is forming thickets along the edges of the groves and appears to be spreading into open areas of Lepturus and Boerhavia. There is the distinct possibility that this species could compete in some areas with the native vegetation particularly the Scaevola-Tournefortia scrub. It is also found on Motu Upua on the interior of the island but does not appear to be spreading in this location. The plant association found at the edge of the numerous lagoons and isolated islets in the lagoon at Christmas are fascinating areas for the study of succession and zonation. Of particular interest are former reef mud flats and hardpans upon which one finds a mixed association of Scaevola, Hedyotis and Suriana with Portulaca lutea and Lepturus forming a ground cover. Scattered mats or individual plants of Sesuvium are found on the isolated islets or on the edges of tidal runs along with Eragrostis whitneyi. In such areas the roots are well watered with saline water. The substrate of such areas vary from coral gravel and sand deposited by the flow of water across the lagoon to reef mud which upon drying quickly forms a hardpan layer.