314 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1954 



Namuamua, which served as a base until November 5. Although 

 generally similar to those farther inland, the forests of this "big 

 bend" region of the Navua River disclosed some new elements, and 

 the village itself, large and clean, was a pleasant headquarters. The 

 earthquake had dislodged a cliff hanging over the mouth of the Waini- 

 koroiluva River, which has now cut a new course through the rubble 

 and is perilously close to the village itself. 



After a brief respite in Suva, on November 12 we were settled in 

 the large coastal village of Ngaloa, in Serua Province, southern Viti 

 Levu. Here the hill forest reaches the coast in places, and only a short 

 distance inland the ridges that gradually lead to the height of land 

 between the sea and the upper Navua River are essentially undis- 

 turbed. A limited amount of timber cutting is done in this region, 

 but fortunately the cutters do not go far from the road that follows 

 the coast. The slope forest is dense and in general aspect resembles 

 that of Namosi Province, but doubtless it contains a few different 

 elements. 



A final 2 weeks at the Catholic Mission of Lomeri, near Ngaloa, 

 brought my work to a close. Here we enjoyed pleasant surroundings 

 and European companionship during the Christmas period, returning 

 to Suva on December 30. My collections in southern Viti Levu sup- 

 plement the earlier ones of J. W. Gillespie (1927) and Otto Degener 

 (1941), and I believe that this part of Viti Levu is now very well 

 known botanically. 



It was with considerable regret that I left Suva on January 7 ; not 

 only is it beautifully situated and climatically delightful, but its 

 people are hospitable in every way. In this brief summary I am un- 

 able to thank the many Europeans and Fijians who have so greatly 

 facilitated my studies. Nor can I detail the valuable contributions 

 that my botanical predecessors have made toward a new Flora of Fiji. 

 My own visits have had the primary purpose of filling in some of tlie 

 areas they did not reach, and our final knowledge of the Fijian flora 

 will reflect the field and herbarium studies of many contributors. 



Insofar as data on the flora of Fiji are now available, we know of 

 1,341 indigenous species of flowering plants, in addition to somewhat 

 more than 500 species of adventive, or introduced, species. These 

 latter, interesting as they may be as a record of man's settlement and 

 visits to a region, cannot be taken as a basis for tracing the relation- 

 ships of a flora. In such phytogeographic studies we must confine 

 ourselves to the plants known to grow naturally, which were presum- 

 ably established before the advent of man in the region. It is interest- 

 ing to note that, of the 1,341 known species of indigenous Fijian 

 phanerogams, 948, or 71 percent, are endemic, that is occurring in 

 Fiji only. A high percentage of specific endemism is characteristic 



