EuTLAND. — History of the Pacific. 15 



are extensively cultivated in districts beyond European or 

 even Arab influence. Thus the absence of certain plants 

 capable of growing in a region may enable us to judge how 

 long the inhabitants have been isolated from the portion of 

 the world wherein these plants are found. 



The eagerness of the Maoris to obtain new seeds and roots 

 was sometimes taken advantage of by unprincipled persons. 

 Darwin informs us that at the Bay of Islands dock-seed was 

 sold to the natives for tobacco; thus the country became over- 

 run with this troublesome weed as far back as 1835.* We 

 may from this safely conclude that the very few foreign plants 

 the Maoris had in cultivation was entirely owing to a want of 

 opportunity to obtain more. 



Ape (Alocasia macrorliiza, or Arum macrorhizum) . — As this 

 species is found wild throughout the Polynesian and Malay 

 Islands, it was probably brought into cultivation in some 

 portion of the region. It is also found wild and cultivated in 

 Ceylon and on the mainland of Asia ; but the Malay names 

 of the plant do not indicate its introduction from the continent. 



The ape, though producing a larger root than the taro, is 

 not so extensively cultivated, owing to a bitter principle, 

 which has to be expelled before cooking. Here we have 

 another instance of a cultivated species being supplanted by 

 an allied species having better qualities. 



The very early discovery of how to separate the noxious 

 from the wholesome portions of vegetable substances accounts 

 for so many poisonous plants being in the first instance brought 

 into cultivation. Amongst the large number of European 

 esculents, though many are unpalatable and indigestible 

 before cooking, none can be considered actually poisonous, a 

 fact doubtless due to a long process of selection carried on over 

 extensive areas. 



Malay Apple {Eugenia malaccensis) . — This species belongs 

 to the Malay Islands, where it was brought into cultivation 

 evidently at a remote period, judging by the number of 

 varieties found. It was cultivated throughout the Polynesian 

 islands in pre-European times, but had not extended its range 

 to the Asiatic Continent or other portions of the tropical world. 

 Another species, the Eugenia jambos, belonging to, and widely 

 cultivated on, the mainland of Asia, was not found in Poly- 

 nesia by Forster. We can thus see that the Malay Islands 

 formed at some remote period an independent centre of culti- 

 vation, whence the species brought into use were carried 

 eastward to Polynesia, but did not always extend themselves 

 in other directions till long afterwards. 



The narrow latitudinal range of the breadfruit is probably 



* " Voyage of a Naturalist." Darwin. 



