22 MR. {. H. BURKILL ON 
in one of the small low attendant islands which lies to the south- 
east. In the bush are to be found the majority of the climbing 
plants, chief among them being Mucuna gigantea and Hntada 
scandens with its huge hanging pods. In or near cultivated 
ground, besides the plants actually in cultivation, such as banana, 
yam, sweet potato, paper-mulberry (which furnishes the native 
cloth, tapa), sugar-cane, maize, &c., we meet bread-fruit, custard- 
apple, papaw, pine-apple, Gossypium brasiliense, Manihot utilis- 
sima, Curcuma longa, Zingiber Zerumbet, Canna indica, and 
Cordyline terminalis. In the towns we come upon orange-trees, 
Kava (Piper methysticum), tobacco, &c. A town is merely a 
collection of huts dotted about a grassy space in the midst of 
cocoanut- and orange-trees, and generally surrounded by a fence. 
The orange—‘ Moli-papalagi,” or white man’s orange (papalagi 
=a white man)—was introduced early in the nineteenth century- 
The “ Moli Toga,” or Tongan orange, is a shaddock. The lime is 
also common, and huge fruits of a citron are sometimes to be seen. 
One small part of Vavau has a flora all its own. Bordering a 
lake near the town of Tuanuku is a small fen, the entrance to 
which is very difficult to find. This is the home of Gleichenia 
dichotoma, Davallia solida, Lindsaya ensifolia, Lycopodium 
cernuum, Psilotum complanatum, Ophioglossum pendulum, Lep- 
ronta mucronata, Spathoglottis pacifica, and Phaius grandifolius. 
I met with Schizea digitata only in Lotuma, a little island in 
Vavau harbour. 
The sensitive plant is the prevailing weed of the islands, and 
it quickly and painfully reveals imperfections in the soles of 
one’s shoes, though a native walks over it unconcernedly. The 
sensitive plant, however, may be avoided; not so Ohrysopogon 
aciculatus, the awns of which cleave to one’s socks, and are apt 
to produce irritating sores which may confine the sufferer to his 
couch for months. 
Of useful plants which are grown, Pometia pinnata (Tava); 
Anona squamosa, Spondias dulcis (Vi), and Carica papaya (Oliji) 
may be mentioned for their pleasant fruits. Eugenia malac- 
hee (Fekika) has fruits resembling an apple in flavour but 
es coarse. Artocarpus integrifolia, the bread-fruit, from the 
omestic point of view, is a vegetable and not a fruit: like the 
yam, sweet potato, and Talo (Colocasia antiquorum—Taro in other 
ae o the Pacific) it must be cooked. The small beans of 
only used by whines an excellent vegetable, though they are 
people. The natives grow sugar-cane for 
