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134 A BOTANICAL TOUR AMONG THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.
vious to GUI' return to Sydney- If I had not known something of the richness
of the vegetation of this place before going there, my impression on entering
the harbour would have been that it was the most barren place in existence.
Tlie harbour is well slieltered, and the township large, considering the age
of the settlement ; but the bare-looking hills which surround it, destitute of
vegetation, save a coarse grass, render Noumea anything but prepossessing or
jiicturesque. There is, I think, a want of- taste on' the pai-t of the French
Government, having the facilities which they possess,—convict laboui*, etc., for
the improvement of the appearance of the place. They would only have to
send seven miles to find a collection of large and truly ornamental trees, such
as it would be impossible to equal elsewhere ;
they could be procured in a few
hours, and planted upon those barren-looking hills which are composed of
really good soil. Kew Caledonia will yet, I think, from its fine genial climate
and its suitability for the growth of almost anything, be a centre of attraction
for thousands. Even now men of small means might soon gain an independ-
ence by industry. Land can be had at a cheap rate, and convict labour too.
In a botanical way New Caledonia wiU, I have no doubt (and it is my inten-
tion to visit it soon again), produce a greater variety of plants than most
islands in the Pacific. Unfortunately I spent but one day, and that a pouring
wet one, in the mountains a few miles above the " Model Farm." In spite of
the rain, however, I succeeded in collecting some interesting plants. A suc-
cession of very pleasing cascades occiirs between two very steep mountains to
the right of the farm. These steeps are literally covered with vegetation, which
in every respect is far more luxuriant than any I have seen in the Samoas.
The rugged pavement of stones embedded in rich volcanic or vegetable soil
clothed with Mosses, Lichens, and Fungi ; climbers covered with moss, like
ropes hanging loosely, or binding the decaying vegetation with the living
Selaginellas, and Ferns of all kinds,
—
Bletia, Crinum, Dianella, and a variety
of other plants under foot, and luxuriant beyond description, are here to be
met with; and overhead, at considerable height, tlie massive green boughs of
tlie taller trees, whose stems and larger branches profusely ornamented with
parasites and epiphytes, together with numerous climbers, form a canopy
beneath which the sun seldom or never gleams, and presents a picture of vege-
table luxuriance such as language cannot describe, nor the talents of an artist
do justice to. Conspicuous during my walk through more open spaces were
the Elceocarpus persicifoUa, with its large blue berries ; a Psychotria, with
ricli rosy-pink blossoms ; the^yellow flowers of Oxera pulchella, and the snowy
white ones of Eranthemum tuherculatum, and also of a species of Murraya,
having a perfume stronger than that of Orange blossom. These, togetlier
with numerous individuals of Oeissois, Erythi-ina, Grewia, Windmannia,
HarUyhsea, Desmodium, Acacia, Cycrostema, Asclepias, Melodinus, and
Eugenia, also masses of Ileiiconia and of Marattia, added much to interest
me during my ramble.
At the " Model Farm " many branches of industry are cari-ied on by convicts.
In one of the granaries I was shown by M. Boutan, a gentleman who manages
the whole establishment, some ten or twelve tons of rice, of good quality, whicli
;