4 THE AMKRICAN BOTANIST 



Lantana is a sturdy bush which here spreads and forms 

 dense brambly thickets. It has very attractive flowers of a 

 bewildering variety of combinations of pink and yellow. It 

 is however, considered a great pest by planters on account of 

 its impenetrable tangles. It is found also in the Fiji's. I 

 am told that it was introduced here by a French missionary 

 who imported it for his flower-garden. 



A hibiscus species known as purau has lemon-colored blos- 

 soms very like cotton-tree blossoms and very tough bark used 

 locally as cordage. The cotton-trees in the yard of Mr. 

 Campbell in Papeete are ten or more feet in height, bearing 

 buds, flowers, and both green and ripe bolls at this time. 

 These plants are also found in a wild state. 



A species known as black acacia bears large white globular 

 blossoms and forms dense jungles amongst coconut groves if 

 allowed to grow. Another species with small yellow flowers 

 deliciously fragrant, seems identical with the Texas acacia. 

 Tamarind trees are frequently seen, mostly in green pod. 

 Coming back to the ground one first sees a long-stemmed, dark 

 red pea-shaped blossom on a species of weed commonest along 

 the surfless, reef -protected beach. Various tough yellow- 

 blossomed mallow weeds are used to make the brooms used 

 by the local "whitewings" who are convicts. -The pink-flow- 

 ered sensitive plant has smaller blossoms than the familiar 

 Morongia of the southern United States. A cucurbitaceous 

 vine with rather small yellow flowers is also found pretty 

 much everywhere in the country. It bears small ornate 

 "pumpkins" like fairy lanterns. A small-flowered species of 

 Passiflora is also abundant in places. 



The day flowers (Commelina) are of two kinds, a small- 

 flowered running kind with the third petal blue and a larger 

 flowered kind with the third petal white. The first is by far 



