FLORA VITIENSIS. : 285 
Cultivated throughout the Viti group (Seemann!). Also cultivated in New Zealand, the Tongan, 
Hawaiian, Samoan, and Society Islands. 
The Taro, or, as the Fijian language has it, the Dalo, is grown in Viti on irrigated or on dry ground, 
eid more on the latter than on the former. The water is never allowed to become stagnant, but always 
ept in gentle motion. When planted on dry ground, generally on land just cleared, a tree or two with 
thick crowns are left standing in every field, which, as the natives justly conclude, attracts the moisture, and 
favours the growth of the crop. When the crop is gathered in, the tops of the tubers are cut off, and at 
once replanted. The young leaves may be eaten like Spinach; but, like the root, they require to be well 
cooked in order to destroy the acridity peculiar to Aroideous plants. The Fijians prefer eating the cooked 
Taro when cold—a taste which few Europeans share with them; on the contrary, the latter relish them 
uite hot, and, if possible, roasted. A considerable number of varieties are known,* some better adapted 
or puddings, some for bread (madrai), or simply for boiling or baking. The outer marks of distinction 
chiefly rest upon the different tinge observable in the corm, leaf, stalks, and ribs of the leaves—white, 
yellowish, purple. That called “ Kwrilagi,” was pointed out as having been eaten with a whole tribe of people. 
The story sounds strange, but as a number of. natives were present when it was told, several of whom 
corroborated the various statements, or corrected the proper names that occurred, its truth appears 
unimpeachable. In the interior of Viti Levu, about three miles N.N.E. from Namosi, there dwelt a tribe, 
known by the name of Kai-na-loca, who in days of yore gave great offence to the ruling chief of the 
Namosi district, and, as a punishment of their misdeeds, the whole tribe was condemned to die. Every 
year the inmates of one house were baked and eaten, fire was set to the empty dwelling, and its foundation 
planted with kurilagi. In the following year, as soon as this Taro was ripe, it became the signal for the 
destruction of the next house and its inhabitants, and the planting of a fresh field of Taro. Thus, house 
after house, family after family, disappeared, until Ratuibuna, the father of the present chief Kuruduadua, 
pardoned the remaining few, and allowed them to die a natural death. In 1860, only one old woman, 
living at Cagina, was the sole survivor of the Na-loca people. Picture the feelings of these unfortunate 
wretches, as they watched the growth of the ominous Taro! Throughout the dominions of the powerful chief 
whose authority they had insulted, their lives were forfeited, and to escape into territories where they 
were strangers would, in those days, only have been to hasten the awful doom awaiting them in their own 
country. Nothing remained save to watch, watch, watch, the rapid development of the kurilagi. As leaf 
after leaf unfolded, the corms inereased in size and substance, how their hearts must have trembled, their 
courage forsaken them! And when at last the foliage began to turn yellow, and the Taro was ripe, what 
mental agonies, what torture, they must have endured ! : 
III. Alocasia, Schott in CEstr. Bot. Wochenbl. vol. ii. p. 59; Prodr. Syst. Aroid. p. 144; 
ejusd. Gen. n. 40. tab. 40. Spathze tubus vegeto-persistens; lamina cymbiformis. Spadix appen- 
diculatus, spatha paulo brevior, inferne ovariis (ovarodiis interdum) medio floribus neutris, infra apicem 
synandriis, dense obsitus. Ovaria stylo brevi, placenta fundifixa, ovulis paucis (sub 6) erectis bre- 
viter funiculatis instructa. Stigma depresso-hemisphericum, diametro quam ovarium minore. 
Synandria breviter stipitata, loculis sub vertice aperientibus. Fructus spath: tubo irregulariter, ab 
apice disrupto et revoluto involucratus. Baccæ rubrw, diu sistentes. Semen depresso-hemisphzri- 
cum, breviter funiculatum, epidermide crassula obductum, testa levigata, germinatione admotiva 
vaginam brevissimam ostendente.—Rhizoma elatum. Lamina juvencule stirpis magis peltata, 
adulte vix peltata. Coste et venz utrinque elevato-prominentes, Spadices suaveolentes. 
Besides the species enumerated below, there is in tropical Polynesia A. macrorrhiza, Schott (drum 
costatum, Sol. Prim. Fl. Ins. Pacif. (ined.), p. 307, ex parte, et in Parkins. Drawings of Tahit. Plants 
ined.), tab. 85, from the Society Islands (Banks and Solander !), of which Solander says that there are six 
neo exitivaiod in those ‘lands. but he regards it as identical with 4. Indica, which is also found in that 
group as well as in the Hawaiian. 
l. A. Indica, Schott, CEstr. Bot. Wochenbl. vol. iv. p. 410; Synops. Aroid. p. 46; sarmentosa ; 
` sarmenta apice tuberifera; petioli longi; lamina folii stirpis adults ad basin fere usque bipartita, 
* The different kinds of Dalo (Taro) are, Basaga, Bega, Dalo ni Vanua, Karakarawa, Keri, Kurilagi, 
Mumu, Quiawa, Sikaviloa, Sisiwa, Soki, Toakula, etc. 
[PUBLISHED JULY 31, 1808.] a 
