16 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



due to its inability to grow far outside the equatorial zone. As 

 this is not the case with the Malay apple or cocoanut, some 

 other cause must have prevented a more rapid distribution at 

 the remote period when they were brought into cultivation. 

 Taken in connection with the fact of so few cultivated species 

 finding their way from the mainland of Asia through the 

 Malay Islands to Polynesia, I think we may infer a very 

 restricted intercourse between the peoples of the two regions. 



PoEOiTi (Solanum oleraceum). — This species belongs to the 

 flora of the New World, and was brought into Europe during 

 the last century. The bright-scarlet berries and leaves of the 

 plant were formerly eaten by the Hervey Islanders, but I do 

 not know whether the species was regularly cultivated or 

 merely grew wild. I have introduced the j^oroiti in order to 

 call attention to the many New-World species bearing edible 

 fruit that had found their way into Polynesia previous to the 

 advent of Europeans.''' Goodrich, one of the first foreigners 

 who ascended Mauna-loa, discovered white and red rasp- 

 berries, strawberries, and whortleberries growing plentifully 

 at a high elevation, where alone, within the Hawaiian Archi- 

 pelago, these plants would find a suitable climate. From the 

 geographical position of Hawaii, we may safely conclude these 

 fruit-bearing plants were American species ; and, taking their 

 number into account, it was improbable they were accidentally 

 introduced, or by any other agents than man. 



Pickering, who paid particular attention to the foreign 

 plants scattered throughout Polynesia, found the Cape goose- 

 berry (Physalis peruviana) growing wild in the Hawaiian and 

 other groups, where it had more than one native name.f As 

 nearly all the introduced plants observed by Pickering belong 

 to the Asiatic region, the presence of the above-mentioned 

 fruit-bearing species seems to confirm what we gather from 

 the kumara — that the inhabitants of Polynesia had at some 

 time communication with the American Continent. 



III. — The Cultivated Plants of Polynesia : Indigenous 



Species. 



The indigenous plants artificially multiplied by the Poly- 

 nesian people were for the production of food and clothing, or 

 for ornamental purposes. Of these the most important are 

 the arrowroot, Tahitian chestnut, Tahitian apple, shaddock, 

 ti-tree, and pandanus. 



PiA, or Arrowroot (Tacca innnatifolia) . — This species 

 grows abundantly in a wild state on many of the islands of 

 eastern Polynesia, where it is also cultivated, but only on a 



* " Polynesian Researches." W. Ellis, 

 t " Races of Man." 



