BOTANICAL NOTES FROM TAHITI 



By J. O. Stancl,iff. 



np 1 1 1{ silk-cuUuii uv kapok irce forms a striking part of the 

 scenery of Tahati. In its spring garb it is covered with 

 pensile, sc^mewhal banana-shaped cotton pods which hang full 

 lo bursting. The cotton is fine for packing shell necklaces for 

 mailing to small nieces at home. 



The steamship folder says Pai)eete is situated in "a forest 

 of flamboyant trees" but the principal trees embowering the 

 harbor front are a form of locust which a writer calls algaroba 

 and w liich ii high authority in far-off Washington says is not 

 the carob tree but a near relation thereof. The hard-shelled 

 fruit contains a sweet pulj) which is inedible unless possibly 

 it is relished by stock. 



"Flamboyant trees" have ninv a lacy green foliage, a few 

 red blossoms, and their fruil. A medium sized tree with bare 

 branches like a buckeye, or branches beginning to be leafy, 

 bears now fragrant white and cream-colored magnolia-shaped 

 blossoms. Some call it the French pine trvni its use by the 

 hVencli in cemeteries, but I am told that the natives have a 

 sort of superstitious liorror of it. The small pink blossoms 

 of lofty cassias strew the streets in places, Bougainvillea is 

 now covered with gay lilac-hued flowers, and at Faaa, the 

 next village west of Papeete, a fine vine is smothering a half- 

 dead flamboyant with its lilac blossoms. At Faaa too, is a 

 huge banyan. 



