SCO LETTER FROM MR. MACGILLIVRAY. 



and no anchorage could be found. There did not appear to be any 

 vegetation whatever on the island, which is merely a large cinder, hav- 

 ing been seen smoking a few years ago ; so I shall pass on to Aneiteum, 

 which we reached on November 7, and where we remained for three 

 weeks. It is the most southern island of the New Hebrides, and on 

 the charts is incorrectly called Annatom or Annatam. My collection 

 of Aneiteum plants is very small, consisting only of sixty-nine species, 

 of which forty- one are Ferns. Although we spent three weeks at 

 Aneiteum, I had very little time to devote to collecting of plants. 

 This however is not of much consec[uence, as Milne was diligently em- 

 ployed during our stay. The great variety, beauty, and often singu- 

 larity of the Ferns, I find frequently alluded to in my journal The 

 damp woods of the interior of the island, especially along the course of 

 the mountain-streams, furnished, among others, a remarkable LitobrocUa^ 

 with the hixhit oi lA/ffodi?im, running over trees; an Oleandra, forming 



_ ; and a tall, handsome Marat- 

 tiay and a fine flabelliform Scliizcea^ are common in the woods. On 

 the low gi-ounds I fell in with a clump of three individuals of a very 

 fine Alsophila, the largest of which had a caudex 15 feet in height to 

 the giving off of the first frond, and 30 inches in circumference at 6 

 feet from the ground, while the beautiful tripinnate fronds, arching 

 gracefully outwards, attain the length of from 10 to 15 feet. In cutting 

 down this, I ascertained from the natives that the central part near the 

 top is eaten : it reminded me of a bad turnip. A handsome Melasto- 

 maceous bush is abundantly mixed up with a very showy white-flowered 

 Faccinimn (F. cereum, Forst.), on the stiff clayey lower hills. A tall reed 

 forms thickets everywhere on the low grounds, and from its stoutness and 

 height (6 to 8 feet), is much used in tlie construction of very efficient sin- 

 gle or double fences, also as supports for the Yam plants. Of the Bread- 

 fruit there are said to be about twenty kinds, specially distinguished by 

 name, I could not myself make out more than two or three well-marked 

 varieties. Four Pabns occur — Cocos, Caryota, Areca, and Sagns: the last 

 three are rare, and arc generally seen near houses. But the most re- 

 markable plant of Aneiteum is a Bammara^ which Moore (who got it 

 there wliile in the Ilavannah) tells me is D. obtma. It does not how- 

 ever agree at all in leaf or cone with the description of that species 

 which I lately saw in Paxton; and yet there is only one Kaurle on 

 Aneiteum, which is abundant, and has long been used for timber, as 



