20 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Pandanus {Pandanus tctilis). — Throughout the islands east- 

 ward of New Guinea this species, both cultivated and wild, 

 was the most widely-disseminated plant made use of by man. 

 In New Zealand the flowers and fruit of the kiekie {Freyci- 

 netia hankseyi), belonging to the same natural order, were 

 also largely consumed by the natives, but I am not aware that 

 the plant was ever multiplied by cultivation. The Eev. Dr. 

 Gill, in his work " Life in the Southern Isles," thus describes 

 one of the uninhabited islands visited by him: " Spending a 

 pleasant day once on an uninhabited island — Nassau Island — 

 I was surprised to see hundreds of robber-crabs asleep on the 

 branches of lofty trees. In perfect safety they hung in rows, 

 holding by their sharp-pointed toes in the shade of a primeval 

 forest. These robber-crabs could not have existed on cocoa- 

 nuts, as there was at that time but a single tree growing on 

 the island. In all probability they had fed on the oily nut of 

 the pandanus, which grows in great abundance near the sea. 

 For the benefit of distressed voyagers, we planted upwards of 

 thirty young cocoanut-trees, not without a misgiving that 

 these fierce crabs might destroy them. Such however, was 

 not the case, for they are now — 1876 — laden with fruit." 



Before reading this I was inclined to regard the robber- 

 crab as a proof of the Polynesian origin of the cocoanut-palm, 

 the ease with which it tore open the monster fruit being, seem- 

 ingly, an adaptation ; but the presence of the animal where 

 the cocoanut is not found does not favour this view. The 

 thick fibrous covering and the strong shell of the cocoanut are 

 clearly an adaptation to the rough waves by which the nut 

 must be so largely disseminated, the tree being littoral, and 

 frequently growing out over the water. 



Note.— The adaptation of the cocoanut to the sea may 

 appear out of keeping with what has been said regarding its 

 distribution among the Pacific islands ; but I do not consider 

 the structure of the fruit has anything to do with long sea- 

 voyages : its adaptation is to the rough waves of the shore, 

 along which the fruit must be so frequently carried and thrown 

 up. Woodford states, in his work on the Solomon Islands, 

 that the young cocoanut-palm will not grow beneath the shade 

 of other trees. As we know that it thrives and bears fruit in 

 situations where its roots are frequently damped by salt-water, 

 we can see that the seed thrown ashore by the waves would 

 be placed in the most favourable situation for growth. 



IV. — Polynesian Agricultuee. 



In the foregoing chapters we have seen that nine species of 



plants foreign to the region were found in cultivation amongst 



the Maoris of eastern Polynesia and New Zealand by early 



European voyagers — besides the cocoanut, the true habitat of 



