«0 WRITE— A Sh-etch of the LIfr of Sawuel W/n'f^. 



— Vegetation. — 

 The vegetation is very similar to that found on the north 

 coast of Australia, and the south coast of New Guinea. It is 

 a dense tropical forest or scrub covering nearly every mile of 

 surface of the low islands. On Trangan there is an exception, 

 for the land is much higher, and a large portion of its surface 

 is covered by tall coarse grass, and bare rocks stand up 

 through it here and there, belts and patches of scrub cover the 

 lower parts. Trangan is the most southerly of the large 

 islands. Most of the trees and plants seen resemble those I 

 have seen in Northern Australia with a few exceptions. I 

 noticed a tree whose young shoots drooped in long bunches 

 and tinted of various colours from a greenish or pinkish white 

 to a scarlet, looking at a distance like blossoms. Another I 

 had not seen in Australia was a mangrove with a large white 

 or pinkish white flower resembling in shape a convolvulus ; 

 this was a straggling small tree, and grew in the salt water on 

 the banks of the Watalli Channel. The common mangrove 

 grew to great perfection there. Some of the trunks were 

 eighty feet long at least; some fine specimens grew on the 

 banks of the Wannambi River. In some parts of the islands 

 there were some magnificent trees very tall, but not very 

 robust ; among them were those that bore a large fruit like an 

 orange, but was pithy inside. The nutmeg trees were very 

 tall, and the fruit appeared in every way like those I have met 

 with in Australia, and like them when the spice has arrived 

 to perfection the brownish green pericarp opens and lets fall 

 the nut covered with a network of scarlet mace, the nut is 

 long in shape, barely half an inch through it, and scarcely an 

 inch long. The tree which excited my admiration most was 

 the Ca.suariiia. They were noble specimens of the genus, some 

 of them a hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high, and 

 stout in proportion. They grew on the lowland bordering the 

 coast, and were very conspicuous from seaward. The dark 

 green almost black foliage and pointed tops of these trees was 

 in marked contrast to the usual scrub foliage, forming a 

 broken fringe all along the west coast of the islands (they did 

 not grow inland). Under these trees grew palms, tree ferns, 

 palm lawyers, and other plants, as well ns creejiers and vines 

 in abundance. In places there were patches of large and tall 

 bamboos, and wherever the native settlements were cocoanut 

 palms were gi'owing and bearing well. This is an introduc- 

 tion by order of the Dutch Government. The nuts appeared 

 io me to be of fair size, and the flesh very thick. 



