BOTANICAL STUDIES IN FIJI — SMITH 311 



of 108 square miles and in elevation attains 4,0^1:0 feet, second in the 

 archipelago only to Mount Tomanivi on Viti Levu. Taveuni has been 

 visited by several botanists, and I spent some weeks there 20 years ago, 

 but there still remain large upland areas in need of collecting. At a 

 plantation on the east coast of Taveuni the highest normal annual rain- 

 fall for the archipelago has been recorded, averaging 213 inches. This 

 eastern slope receives the full force of the trade winds, and the sununit 

 ridge is seldom clear of clouds ; the rainfall at high elevations is prob- 

 ably close to 400 inches a year. One of the thickest forests in Fiji 

 cloaks this precipitous eastern slope from sea to sunmiit without a 

 break. Because the shore is rockbound and unprotected by a reef, the 

 area has no settlements and is difficult to approach. But my intention 

 of working on the eastern slope of Taveuni was thwarted by a combi- 

 nation of circumstances, and we made our headquarters on the popu- 

 lated western coast, where there are several European coconut planta- 

 tions and a few Fijian villages. This coast, for the lower 1,000 feet, is 

 a nearly continuous belt of coconuts, above vv'hich the forest extends 

 upward to the summit ridge. 



The northern and southern extremities of the central ridge of 

 Taveuni have been previously visited by botanists, and I had already 

 twice ascended Mount Uluingalau, the high point. Therefore, in 

 August I worked as thoroughly as time permitted on the slopes in the 

 center of the island. It was a pleasure again to collect in the Taveuni 

 forest, which abounds in huge trees of such species as ndamanu 

 {C alophyllum) J vulavula {E/idospenmmi), and representatives of the 

 Sapotaceae, Moraceae, and Leguminosae. Among the rarest plants to 

 be seen on Taveuni should be mentioned Trimenia weinmoAinii folia 

 (the type species of a curious small family, Trimeniaceae) , Sukunia 

 pentagonioides, a rubiaceous shrub with large white flowers that I 

 named in 1936 to commemorate the distinguished Fijian administra- 

 tor Eatu Sir Lala Sukuna, and the beautiful liana Medinilla loater- 

 housei. This last, the exquisite tangimauthia of Fijian legend, is a 

 melastome with large red bracts embracing waxy white flowers. To 

 my surprise, we found growing near the tangimauthia another species 

 of Medinilla which is presumably undescribed, if anj'thing even more 

 spectacular, with rich pink bracts and flowers aggregated into huge 

 inflorescences along the slender, twining stems. But perhaps my most 

 exciting moment on Taveuni came with the recognition of an old 

 friend, Degeneria vitiensis, the basis of a recently described plant 

 family which we had previously known only from the two large 

 islands.* 



* The Degeneriaceae, believed to be among the most primitive of extant angio- 

 sperms, has been discussed in Journ. Arnold Arb.. vol. 23, pp. 356-365, 1942, 

 and vol. 30, pp. 1-38, 1949. 



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