IS40.] PRODUCTIONS. 313 



terra ittents, are not unusually prevalent, but colds, coughs, 

 influenza, and consumption, are common. Glandular swell 

 ings and eruptive complaints, superinduced in many cases b\ 

 intemperance and excess, are more or less prevalent. 



Tonga is, perhaps, justly entitled to be called the garde i 

 of the group, since it is the most fruitful, and exhibits ; 

 greater exuberance of foliage. Yet all the coralline islands 

 are covered with a deep and rich vegetable mould, containing 

 very little sand, which is highly productive. They are beauti- 

 fully feathered with bread-fruit and cocoas, and adorned with 

 the graceful and majestic trees of the tropics, whose boughs 

 are often interlaced with luxuriant vines and creepers, and 

 with shrubs and plants, in all stages of growth, desirable 

 either for their utility or for ornament. Like the happy val- 

 ley of Cashmere, each is a paradise rejoicing in " perpetual 

 spring," and when fanned by the soft breezes of summer, waft- 

 ing the many odors of its perfumed flowers among its sister 

 isles. 



All the principal tropical productions flourish on these 

 islands in great abundance. Yams, sweet potatoes, bananas, 

 taro, bread-fruit, cocoa-nut, sugar-cane, shaddocks (citrus de- 

 cumana), limes, papaw, or Carica papaya, and the ti, are the 

 most important indigenous products. The sweet orange of 

 Tahiti has been introduced by the missionaries, and appears 

 to be well adapted to the soil and climate, but the fruit is 

 almost always destroyed by an insect that deposits its larvse 

 on it, which cause it to fall before it becomes fully ripe. 

 Pine-apples, water-melons, cabbages, turnips, mustard, pep- 

 pers, maize, a species of chirimoya, and the North American 

 papaw, or custard-apple, have likewise been introduced, and 

 richly reward the time and labor expended in their cultiva- 

 tion. The heathen cultivate the tobacco-plant with great 

 success. The ahia, (eugenia malacconds,) producing a 

 pulpy fruit something like the apple in shape, is occasionally 

 found. There are several species of palms, and different va- 

 rieties of cane and reeds. The casuarina affords the material 

 for the native clubs, the shafts of their spears, their drums, 



