52 FLORA VITIENSIS. 
Bot. Lugd. Bat. p. 283. Chrysomelon pomiferum, Forst. mss. in Herb. Par. Spondias Cytherea, 
Sonn. Voy. vol. ii. p. 222. t. 123; Gertn. Fruct. t. 103. Poupartia dulcis, Blume, Bijdr. p. 1161.— 
Nomen vernac. Vitiense, * Wi;" Tahitense, “ Vi."— Common throughout Viti (Seemann! n. 98). 
Also collected in the Society Islands (Banks and Solander! Barclay!) and in the Tongan group 
(Forster! U. S. Expl. Exped.). 
The most prominent place among the native fruit-trees undoubtedly belongs to the Wi, which appears 
to be self-sown, and is met with in abundance about towns and villages. It is often sixty feet high; the 
bark is smooth and whitish, the leaves pinnate, glabrous, and of a dark green, forming a fine contrast with 
the yellow oval-shaped fruits with which the tree is heavily laden. The fruit has a fine apple-like smell, 
and a most agreeable acid flavour, rendering it highly suitable for pies; indeed, the Wi is the only Fijian 
fruit which recommends itself for that purpose. At Rewa I weighed and measured several highly-deve- 
loped drupes, and found the largest to be exactly one foot in circumference, and one pound two ounces in 
weight. The natives are as fond of Wis as the white settlers, and quite content to make their dinner of 
Taro and Wis. : 
V. Dracontomelon, Blume, Mus. Bot. vol. i. p. 231. t. 42; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. p. 427. 
Flores hermaphroditi. Calyx 5-partitus, lobis conniventibus imbricatis. Petala 5, suberecta, apice 
recurva, subvalvata. Discus acetabuliformis, crenulatus. Stamina 10, basi disci inserta. Ovarium 
sessile, 5-loculare ; styli 5, crassi, erecti (ovaria simulantes), apice connati, stigmatibus terminalibus 
obtusis ; ovula in loculis pendula. Drupa globosa, carnosa, supra medium stylorum basibus tubercu- 
lata, putamine osseo depresso subangulato margine foraminulato 2-5-loculari, loculis divergentibus. 
Semina 3-gono-compressa, pendula, testa membranacea ; cotyledones plano-convexe ; radicula brevis, 
supera, centrifuga.—Arbores, foliis alternis imparipinnatis; panieulis axillaribus et subterminalibus, 
amplis; floribus subfasciculatis, pallidis. 
1, D. sylvestre, Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. n. 507 ; foliolis 15-19 oppositis alternisve ellip- 
ticis v. oblongis acuminatis basi subinzquali rotundatis glabris, ad venarum axillas subtus villosis.— 
Pomum Draconum sylvestre, Rumph. Amb. vol. i. t. 59. Nomen vernac. Vitiense, “ Tarawau.” — 
Common throughout the Viti group (Seemann! n. 99). Also widely diffused through the East 
Indian Archipelago. 
There are numerous fruits in Viti eaten and even esteemed by the natives, but most insipid to a 
European palate. Foremost amongst them stands the Tarawau, the produce of a tree (Dracontomelon 
sylvestre, Blume) connected with native superstitions. The tree is not worshipped; but it is held to be 
the business of the dead to plant it, and it is believed to grow not only in this world, but also in Naicobo- 
cobo, the Fijian nether-world, or perhaps, more correctly, the general starting-place for it. Hence arose 
the expression, “Sa la'ki tei tarawau ki Naicobocobo," literally, “He has gone to plant Tarawaus at Nai- 
cobocobo;" i.e. he is dead. It is difficult to guess why these trees should have been deemed worthy of 
such distinction; they grow to the height of sixty feet, have flattish branches, pinnated leaves, insignificant 
whitish flowers, and a tough insipid fruit, only palatable to the natives; moreover, they are regarded as the 
emblem of the truth-speaking man, not having, as so many others, a number of false or sterile flowers. 
The hermaphrodite nature of the flowers, which is one of the features by which this genus differs from 
Spondias, has therefore not escaped the notice of the natives. 
2. D. () pilosum, (sp. nov.) Seem. ; arboreum; ramulis angulatis foliisque junioribus hirsuto- 
pilosis; foliis alternis 5-jugis cum impari, foliolis brevipetiolulatis ovato-oblongis acuminatis basi 
obliquis integerrimis penninerviis submembranaceis ; czt. ign.— Nomen vernac. “ Tarawau ki kaka.” 
— Viti Levu (Seemann! n. 100). 
This may possibly be identical with a Dracontomelon collected by Cuming in the Philippine Islands 
(his n. 1700, if no confusion of labels has taken place); but the seraps of a young plant collected by me are 
too imperfect to enable me to identify the two. Leaves of my specimens 1} foot long; leaflets 5-6 inches 
long, 2-23 inches broad; rachis with two deep furrows. According to the natives, the fruit is the favourite 
food of a small kind of parrot, the Kakà. 
I have besides seen the foliage of an Anacardiaceous tree, collected in Viti by Williams, and resembling: 
