BuTLAND. — History of the Pacific. 5 



found its way from the Asiatic islands into the Pacific region. 

 This conclusion is strengthened by the fact that the New Zea- 

 land natives, though cut off from their Polynesian relatives, 

 preserved the names of plants they introduced, and conferred 

 on indigenous species names in vogue throughout the Eastern 

 Pacific. 



When Captain Cook took refuge in the Endeavour River, 

 North AustraHa, he discovered, near to where Cooktown now 

 stairds, quantities of the Colocasia growing wild. As, according 

 to the best authorities, the species does not belong to the 

 Australian flora, we can only conclude that the continent had 

 been visited at some former time by an agricultural people, 

 though the art was unknown to the aborigines. 



In Polynesia the taro was grown in swamps or on arti- 

 ficially irrigated laud ; in New Zealand it was planted in 

 ordinary dry ground. Notwithstanding this adaptation of 

 culture to the climatic conditions, it was only in the northern 

 portion of the archipelago the taro could be successfully 

 raised. The very few cultivated plants the New Zealand 

 people possessed being so ill adapted to the climate of the 

 country accounts for an agricultural people being mainly 

 dependent on the root of a wild fern {Pteris aquilina) for their 

 vegetable supplies. Though many species of the order AroidecB 

 are bitter and poisonous, rude hunting peoples, having dis- 

 covered how to expel the deleterious properties, use the roots 

 for food. From this, together with the very wude distribution 

 of the cultivated Colocasia in the Old World, it is supposed 

 to have been one of the first plants brought into cultivation.''' 



Hue, or Calabash (Lagenaria vulgaris). — Throughout 

 the tropical portion of the Old and New Worlds various 

 species of the Lagenaria were extensively grown to furnish 

 domestic utensils known under the general name of calabash. 

 Whether the American calabash in cultivation before the time 

 of Columbus was merely a variety of L. vulgaris is uncertain. 

 From ancient records we learn that this species has been in 

 cultivation on the Asiatic Continent for more than four 

 thousand years. As the species does not belong to the Poly- 

 nesian flora, we must conclude that it was introduced from the 

 west, the white-flowered or Asiatic variety being everywhere 

 in cultivation when Europeans entered the Pacific. 



In Cook's time the New-Zealanders grew the Jiiie as an 

 esculent, and for the manufacture of drinkiug-vessels ; in this 

 we see the -effects of the country being peopled directly from 

 the tropics, for nowhere else so far within the temperate zone 

 were these utensils in general use. 



The earliest discoverers of Easter Island assert that the 



* " Origin of Cultivated Plants." A. De CandoUe. 



