THE PALAEOTROPICS 249 



Other characteristic trees are species of Elaeocarpus (Tiliacea 

 Sideroxylon (Sapotaceae), Eugenia and the wide-spread Aleuritet 

 Moluccana, the "Kukui" of Hawaii. Two species of Podocarpus 

 also are found. 



The giants of this region are banyan figs which attain a pro- 

 digious size. Like so many species of Ficus, these giant Queens- 

 land figs begin life as epiphytes, and their huge trunks are formed 

 by the coalescence of many aerial roots. The trunk of one of 

 these, seen by the writer, was said to be 120 feet in circumference, 

 and the spreading crown was in proportion. 



A dreaded pest of these forests is the tree-nettle (Laportea 

 moroides), a rank weed some ten or fifteen feet high, whose 

 touch is agony. Another species, L. gigas, is a tree of large 

 size. 



Screw-pines abound in north Queensland, and there are sev- 

 eral species of cycads. The genus Macrozamia is wide-spread 

 in Australia, occurring in every state; but Cycas and Bowenia 

 are confined to tropical Queensland, and the latter genus is 

 exclusively Australian. Bowenia differs much in appearance 

 from the other cycads, having a bipinnate leaf which in form 

 suggests a fern. 



Polynesia 



Occupying the whole central area of the Pacific, from Fiji, 

 Samoa, and Tahiti on the south, to Hawaii on the north, are 

 the innumerable islands of Polynesia, all lying within the tropics 

 and enjoying a tropical climate modified by the cooling trade 

 winds of the great ocean. 



Except for Hawaii, the flora of the Polynesian regions is still 

 quite imperfectly known; but in spite of the small size of the 

 islands, and the great isolation of many of them, the floras have 

 much in common, and on the whole may be considered as pre- 

 dominantly Malayan in type. There is also a strong infusion 

 of Australasian elements. 



Many of the Polynesian islands are low coral formations ris- 

 ing only a few feet above sea-level, but others like Tahiti, the 

 Samoan Islands and the Hawaiian Archipelago, are volcanic 

 masses, forming rugged mountains, which in Hawaii reach an 

 altitude of over 13,000 feet. These highest mountains are 



