310 



dressed in one of the shells, it is baked over the fire. The 

 cocoa-init shells are the only vessels which these people possess 

 for carrying water ; they are placed in longish wicker baskets 

 made on parpose, several being arranged side by side, with 

 the eyes of the nut upwards. The Cocoa Tree is planted 

 and propagated every where, both on the inhabited and 

 uninhabited islands; but in most of the young plantations, 

 the trees only bear fruit in the inhabited islands ; where their 

 lofty crowns are seen waving high in the air. The Cocoa Tree 

 bears but very small nuts at Radack, 



The Breadfruit Tree (Mci) is not very common at Radack, 

 and is only planted in the wet and closely inhabited islands. 

 Old trees are however met with even on some of the poorer 

 ones. Its wood, as well as its fruit, is valuable; from it are 

 made the keels of their boats; the other planks being chiefly 

 formed of buoyant wood, joined together with cords of the 

 cocoa bark, and the interstices caulked with leaves of the 



-4 



Pandanus. The Breadfruit Tree likewise yields a gum 



which is use 



There are many 



varieties of this tree, as is generally the case with all cultivated 

 plants; those produced here do not vary much from the 

 parent species ; their fruit is small, and the seeds in it fre- 

 quently perfect. 



An useful fibre is procured from the rind of three different 

 species of plants, which grow wild, the principal being from 

 a shrub of the Nettle family {Boemeria ?), called here the 

 Jfomd, and only found on the best moist soils. The thread 



which the Aroma affords is white, extremely fine and strong. 



plant 



( Triumfi 



S 



of the Tiliaceous kind ; it is common, and, with the Cassytha, 

 covers the driest sands. From its brown bark, the material 

 of the men's aprons is chiefly procured ; they consist of stripes 

 of bark hanging loose, and sewed to a girdle of matting. The 

 ornamental borders of the finer mats are also made of it- 

 The fine white fibrous bark of the Hibiscus populneus {Lo) 

 which we saw at Radack, but only on the groupe Aur, is 

 used in the same way. Ropes are manufactured of this bark 

 at the Sandwich Islands, and elsewh 



ere. 



