133 MISS L. S. GIBBS: A CONTRIBUTION TO 
point on the island of Kadavu. It was therefore my object while in Fiji 
only to work above a certain altitude, and so cut out the widely dis- 
tributed Indo-Malayan littoral flora and what one may call the ethno- 
botanical element, both more or less common to all the Polynesian islands. 
Through the kindness of the Governor, I was enabled to carry out this 
idea by spending most of the spring months of August, September, and 
October at Nadarivatu, 2900 ft. in altitude, on the northeru slopes of the 
Mt. Victoria range, a small police-station and the highest inhabited point 
in Fiji. 
Sir Everard im Thurn not only facilitated my journey across the island 
from Suva, but by lending me official quarters at Nadarivatu gave me full 
opportunity to work the neighbourhood from а botanical point of view. 
Nadarivatu, besides being the residence of the Governor, who comes up 
from Suva for two months during the rainy season, is also that of Mr. Adolf 
Joske, the Resident Commissioner for Colo North; and these two houses, 
with the Stone Cottage, whieh was lent to me, comprised the only available 
accommodation there at the time of my visit. 
Mr. Adolf Joske, having kept a complete series of temperature and rainfall 
observations since 1901, very kindly placed his results at my disposal. The 
following is the rainfall table for seven vears (р. 133). The variation in this 
table is so great that it is necessary to quote the series of years. The 
temperature is only given for 1907, the year of my visit. 
It will be seen from the table that there is a well-marked dry season during 
the months of July, August, and September, and the arly part of October. 
This holds for the whole of Fiji. The summer is the rainy season, which 
lasts from the middle of October till May. In the lower parts of the islands 
the damp heat is intense and very enervating. At Nadarivatu, owing to its 
elevation, the temperature does not vary much ; but this fact is compensated 
for in summer by excess of moisture from mountain mists, as it lies on a 
small plateau only 900 feet below the cloud-topped ridges of the encircling 
mountains. In spring the temperature is delightful, and there is very little 
mist or rain. The evenings, however, are al rays chilly, necessitating fires 
all the year round. 
There is very little exposed rock-surface in Fiji. The principal formation 
is red volcanic clay of great depth, of which even the narrow wooded ridges, 
so characteristic of all the higher mountains, are formed. The rock is 
chiefly voleanic agglomerate, which, where exposed, weathers quickly and is 
reduced to huge blocks, which are especially frequent on the dry side of the 
island. Columnar basalt is general; granite and diorite also occur largely 
in certain areas. Whether these plutonic rocks were present in situ was a 
point which had aroused the interest of geologists, from its bearing on the 
possible continental origin of Fiji. 
Dr. Woolnough (13) of. Sydney University, who spent some weeks in Viti 
