244 Voyage of the Novara. 



carpus incisa), is, after the cocoa-palm, the most useful tree on 

 the island. The fruit, baked in a canak (or native) oven, 

 (vide ante, p. 162), between two heated stones, is the substitute 

 for bread to the Tahitians. At the period of the war, or in 

 consequence of a short crop, the natives, like the New Zealand- 

 ers and the aborigines of the Caroline Archipelago, buried 

 the fruit of the urii in the earth, and ate it in the putrefied 

 state. The bread-tree is productive thrice in the year. The 

 first crop, the best and largest, ripens in March, the second in 

 July, the third, Manavahoi, at the end of November. The 

 fruit varies fi-om eight to twelve pounds in weight. 



IV. The fara, or pandanus, the fruit of which is treated in 

 the same manner as that of the urii, while the leaves serve as 

 a thatch for the bamboo-cane huts of the aborigines. Of the 

 red seeds of the pandanus odoratissimus, the ornament-loving 

 Tahitian women prepare exceedingly fine coronals and neck- 

 laces. The leaves of another species, called iri by the natives, 

 are used for enveloping tobacco, and making cigarettes, as 

 also in the manufacture of house mats, and mats on which to 

 sleep. 



V. The taro ( Caladium escidentmn), a sort of tuber, which at 

 certain seasons supplies any deficiency in the bread-fruit, and 

 is very carefully cultivated by the natives. Of this plant 

 there are in Tahiti thirteen varieties. 



VI. Pia {Tacca pinnatifidd), a sort of tuber resembling the 

 taro, the mealy substance of which is chiefly used as nutri- 

 ment for children and convalescent persons, and which in 



