FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 143 
Iowa party as guests on trips into the interior of Vitilevu Is- 
land. Mr. Harold C. Wright, Acting Commissioner of Agriculture, 
very kindly allowed me the use of a laboratory in the Chemistry 
building and through his knowledge of native plants and the 
Fijian language greatly aided me in my work. 
Others of our party have discussed in their respective chapters 
the salient features of these islands. Without unnecessarily re- 
peating their descriptions a few facts only are necessary as a 
background for the consideration of plants growing in the region. 
The Fiji group including outlying rocks and reefs numbers 250 
islands lying between latitude 15 and 22 S. and therefore well with- 
in the tropic zone. Their small size and remoteness from large 
bodies of land give them a distinct ocean climate with a fairly 
uniform temperature. The larger islands are mountainous with ex- 
tensive alluvial lowlands in places. Coral reefs account for many 
of the smaller islands and constitute a marginal breakwater off 
most of the shores. The total land area of 74385 square miles is 
chiefly contributed by two or three of the larger islands. Vitilevu, 
the largest, upon which the capital, Suva, is located, is nearly one 
hundred miles in east-west dimension and about sixty miles north 
and south with an estimated area of 4112 square miles. 
The rainfall is somewhat rhythmic in distribution and with a 
wetter season extending from December to March, though even in 
the dryer parts there is scarcely a month without rainfall. The 
prevailing wind during the dryer part of the year is the south- 
east trade wind, which gives this side of the island a rainfall of 
about 110 inches, while the leeward side has less than half that 
amount, averaging perhaps 45 inches. My experiences were ex- 
elusively with the rainy side of the Vitilevu Island, in and around 
the capital city of Suva. 
During my six weeks in the islands, June and July, there were 
many early morning rains, but though out daily on collecting 
trips I never encountered a heavy rain-storm in all that time. 
Their so-called winter weather was very mild, comfortably cool at 
night, and though hot during the day, the air was always tempered 
by the waters of the Pacific whose surf pounded on all sides of 
this island. 
These islands, though long peopled by native races, are still 
comparatively undisturbed over great areas. On Vitilevu Is- 
land one encounters relatively natural conditions within a few 
