37 



which are sold at a trifling price to the public, and numbers of 

 foreign trees and vegetables have been successfully introduced. 

 The result is that hundreds of thousands of trees and plants 

 of all descriptions have been dispersed throughout the island, 

 at a very moderate cost to the Government. Dr. Gardner is 

 likewise engaged in the preparation of a Flora Ceylanica, a work 

 which will contain descriptions of all the plants indigenous to the 

 island, so far as he can obtain them, and thus make known to 

 the scientific world, the history and uses of the vegetable pro- 

 ductions of a region, with which the botanists of Europe are less 

 acquainted than any other portion of India of equal extent. 



On the Native Cloth and on the Kava of the South Sea 



Islanders. 



(In a letter from Capt. Sir EVERARD HOME, Bart.. R.N.) 



The Plantations in the Island of Tongataboo, the largest of 

 the Friendly group, consist principally of Yams, Taro, and the 

 Paper Mulberry. From the bark of the latter, taken when the 

 stem is about two inches in diameter, the cloth is prepared with 

 which both sexes of the inhabitants are clothed ; and it is thus 

 made. After being soaked in water it is laid upon a log of wood, 

 which is about as large as the axle-tree of a large cart, small 

 at each end, both extremities supported on the ground by three 

 small pieces of wood, two being laid parallel to each other and 

 to the main log, the third is laid across ; the ends of the log 

 thus rest upon the cross pieces, which raise it three or four 

 inches from the ground, according to the thickness of the 

 pieces of wood which support it. The bark, when placed upon 

 the log, is beaten out by the women with an instrument made 

 of heavy wood, something like a rolling-pin, except that it is 

 square from the handle, which is round. The beating commences 

 at daylight in the morning and continues, without ceasing, 

 until three in the afternoon, unless the women are working 

 against time, some great event, such as a marriage, causing 

 increased exertion, when they go on until dark. The noise caused 

 by the beaters is loud and musical ; they keep time in the opera- 

 tion ; two or four beaters are usually at work in every house, 

 or under a shed formed for the purpose in the enclosed court- 

 yard which surrounds each dwelling, so that the women of 

 Tonga make more noise than those of any place I ever visited. 



