210 FLORA VITIENSIS. 
cotyledonibus multo longiore.—Arbores fruticesve, foliis oppositis, raro in eádem plantd oppositis 
et alternis, aut rarius omnibus alternis, integris, planis, nervis lateralibus ssepius rectis obliquis 
parvis; cymis ubi folia opposita terminalibus et axillaribus pedunculis Oppositis v. rarius alternis, 
ubi folia alterna lateralibus pedunculis alternis; bracteis bracteolisque caducis.—Fusanus, Linn. 
Syst. vol. xiii. p. 765, ex cit. Endl. Mida, A. Cunn. in Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 376. 
Santalum, the type of the Natural Order Santalacec, is composed of about twenty species, spread over 
Asia, Australia, and Polynesia, and which may be best compared in aspect with Myrtles. Indeed, the Fiji 
islanders class their species with the Myrtacee, and give them the same generic name. And they are not far 
wrong. Both have opposite leaves, furnished with oily glands, flowers similarly arranged, and an inferior 
ovary. But the genus Santalum, unlike Myrtaceae, has no petals, only a tetramerous, seldom pentamerous 
ealyx, whieh in most species is white, but gradually changes to pink, and ultimately becomes brown. 
Hence some authors have described them as bearing differently coloured flowers. The fruit of some New 
Holland species is eaten by the natives. 
In tropical Polynesia the genus is represented by—1, S. Freycinetianum, Gaud., from Oahu, Hawaiian 
Islands (Barclay !) ; 2, paniculatum, Hook. et Arn. (S. Freycinetianum, var., A. Gray), from Hawaii (Maerae !) 
and Oahu (Macrae!) ; 3, S. ellipticum, Gaud., from Oahu (Macrae!) ; 4, S. pyrularium, A. Gray, from Kauai, 
Hawaiian Islands (U. S. Expl. Exped.) ; 5, S. insulare, Bert., from the Marquesas and Tahiti; 6, S. Home: 
(sp. nov.), Seem. mss. in Herb. Mus. Brit. Arboreum, ramulis novellis compressis petiolis paniculisque 
glaucis ; foliis oppositis obovatis v. ovatis, obtusis v. acutis, in petiolum angustatis, supra lucidis, subtus 
opacis, venis prominulis; eymis paniculatis axillaribus terminalibusque petiolo duplo longioribus; floribus 
4-meris, perigonio campanulato lobis ovatis obtusis, disci lobis oblongis obtusis; stylo elongato; drupa 
ignota.—Isle of Pines, off New Caledonia (Sir E. Home !, collected in 1852; M‘Gillivray !, collected in 1860). 
Aneitum and Eromanga (M‘Gillivray !). Petioles 6-7 lines long, blade of leaf 2-3 inches long, 1-13 inch 
broad.—7, S. Yasi (sp. nov.), Seem., from Viti; and perhaps one or two new species from New Caledonia, 
gathered by the French collectors, but not yet described. 
The most easterly species of the genus is Santalum insulare, found in the Marquesas Islands and Tahiti, 
where it is known as “ Eai ;"* the southernmost in New Zealand (S. Cunninghamit), known there as “ Mairi ;” 
the northernmost in the Sandwich Islands; and the most westerly (S. album) in the Indian peninsula. All. 
the species delight-in dry, rocky localities, hovering about the eraters of extinct voleanoes and similar 
situations, and degenerating in quality, commercially speaking, when growing in moist places. The most 
barren islands in the South Sea are those yielding the finest sandal; and as in such islands provisions are 
scarce, and the natives much less hospitable than where food is abundant, we shall see in the sequel how 
disastrous this peculiarity has proved to the white race. 
Several species produce sandal-wood. In old English works sandal-wood is sometimes called “ Sanders- 
wood," but our present form, “Sandal” (Arab. Sandal), is more correct; the Chinese term the wood 
collectively, * Tan-heong," i.e. scented tree. On the Malabar coast, Santalum album is termed ** Chandana 
cotta,” whilst the Polynesian species go by the generic name of * Ahi” (with various prefixes and affixes), 
which in Fijian becomes “ Yasi;" in Eromangan, “ Nassau,” and in Tana, “ N ebissi," and reminding one 
of Ayasru, the name Santalum album bears in Amboyna. | 
l. S. Yasi, (sp. nov.) Seem. (Tab. LV.) ; arboreum, glabrum; foliis oppositis ovato-lanceolatis 
v. sublineari-lanceolatis attenuatis basi acutis; paniculis axillaribus terminalibusque folio multoties 
brevioribus; floribus 5-meris (albis, demum roseis, deinque brunneis), perigonio lobis acutis, fauce 
perigonii pilosa, antheris ovatis, disci lobis subobovatis obtusis; stylo elongato; drupis subrotundis 
(nigris).— Nomen vernac. Vitiense, * Yasi.’—Bua or Sandal-wood Bay, Vanua Levu (Seemann! 
n. 385; Sir E. Home!). 
“ We know nothing of the Viti Islands botanically, except that they contain rich forests of sandal- 
wood." Thus wrote Endlicher in 1836, in his summary of the Flora of the South Sea Islands; and he 
might have added, that it was this knowledge, scanty though it was, which led to the present free inter- 
course between the savage Fijian and civilized nations. 
.  * Mentioned by S. Parkinson (Voy. to the South Seas, p. 50), under the name of “ E ahei,” as being 
used for scenting oil by the Tahitians in Captain Cook's days. c 
f Mr. E. Deutsch, of the British Museum, a distinguished Oriental scholar, kindly forwarded the 
following reply to several questions which I put to him about the derivation, meaning, and nature of the 
* 
