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121
A BOTANICAL TOUR AMONG THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.
BY WILLIAM E. GTJILFOTLE.
IL
In Yarau's beautiful harbour we next dropped anchor. Yavau is the only
one of tlie Friendly Islands we visited. The harbour is an exceedingly picturesque
place, and in this respect it may be second only to Pango Pango
in Tutuila. The scenery charmed me much, although, in all my rambles
and I believe that I wallied over the greater portion of the larger islands of
this group—I found nothing very i-are or new in the way of plants. Yavau is
less mountainous, the surface having more of an undulating nature than any
of the other islands. I think it would be admirably adapted for the growth
of Cotton. In no other place have I seen the Cocoanut so abundant. There
are six distinct varieties,—a fact which rather surprised me, as I had never
heard of more than two. Having collected specimens, I soon obtained from
the natives theii- respective names as follows -.—NiuJcafa, a very large nut, the
husk of which is about eighteen inches long ; Kafahula, an almost roimd nut, the
milk of which is very sweet ; Taokave, a very small nut, the milk used only by
the chiefs : the tree itself is much taller and more slender than any of the other
varieties, and bears a much greater quantity of nuts, the average being eighty
in one bunch ; Paagania, nut of moderate size, but having a very thick shell,
which the natives cut into round pieces about thi-ee or four inches in diameter,
with which they play a game called " lafo ;" I\imnea, a very handsome variety,
with a red husk; Ninule,\s the variety common throughout Polynesia, the
nut is the same in size as the last, but of the ordinary colour, and is a remarkably
sti'ong grower. In a village about two miles inland I came across
a species of Shaddock, bearing fruit of exti'aordinary size, averaging thirty
inches in circiimference, the rind one inch in thickness, and exceedingly bitter.
Near a native burial-place, not far from Talau, the highest mount of Vavau, and
which is only 400 feet above the level of the sea, I met with some very fine spe-
cimens of the beautiful Barringtonia speciosa, which is not common in Yavau,
but is met with vei-y freqiiently in the Fijis and the East Indies. Its com-
pact spreading branches, thickly clothed with large dark green foliage and rich
rosy -pink sweetly scented flowers, entitle it to a place among the more beauti-
ful of ornamental trees. The gi'ound is often covered for a considerable dis-
tance with its large quadrangulate seed-vessels, which, while in the green state,
are used for poisoning fish. About a mile from the burial-place I was not a
little surprised to find myself under the shade of a magnificent Tamarind-tree
{Tamarindus Indlcns) fully thirty-five feet in height. I inquired of some natives
who could speak English tolei-ably well if they knew where the tree was
brought from. They answered that "Papelangi"— "white man"—had put it
there. Several varieties of the Orange-tree are plentiful about the villages, but
the Tahitian predominates. There are also a Lemon and a Lime, the latter
being the same species that I met with at the Samoas. The Carica Papaya, or
" Papau apple " (often called " Mammcy apple ") is very abundant here. Piper
t^OL. VII. [jULY 1, 18G9.] L
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