199 A BOTANICAL TOUR AMONG THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. 
methysticum, the plant of which the de is made, i is cultivated extensively ; 
but in this, and in many other islands have taken up their 
abode, the practice of drinking that beastly beverage has ceased much of late 
years. The under-scrub of Vavau consists principally of an Arundinaria, the 
reed of which the houses and fences (decidedly ie neatest and best I have seen 
anywhere) ia made. A eA aseolus, sereral. add ies of mae, ae a Kenney- 
dia [?—En tob asses over 
hundreds = acres. Sometimes they find their way into the SERS of 
Broussonettia (the plant of which * Tapa," or native cloth is made), and soon 
destroy them. The ceful Cocoa-nut towers majestically above, and waves 
its feathery fronds in the breeze, as if defying its enemies beneath. I found 
the vegetation more varied, with few exceptions, near to the water’s oe where 
Malvaceous, Rubiaceous, isi ge and Leguminous plants seemed to be 
more numerous than others. I was taken all round this ay delightful 
harbour in the French missionaries’ rie and was not only charmed with the 
Pup and the perfume of Jasminum rents, Sl resting itself upon 
shrubs on the banks that pP ed the shore, but also with the fish and 
dade of all colours to be seen in its waters. The pretty Paritium tiliaceum, 
with its heart-shaped leaves ka pe golden-yellow flowers, a Hernandia, a 
Calophyllum, an Erythrina, and a Casuarina were among the vegetation that 
clothed the banks. An Echites and a white-flowering Hoya grow in such thick 
daceous plants; a Dendrobium might, perhaps, be discovered in the midst of a 
bunch of Drynaria, upon a stump or in the fork of a tree, and occasionally a 
Bletia and a Diuris would be seen in the long grass. Growing around their 
AER N in the villages, the natives have many Fijian plants. Among the 
more conspicuous of these were the Acalypha tricolor, a Euphorbiacea, some 
Dracænas and Crotons, and the beautiful Palm Pritchardia Pacifica, whose 
bright green umbrageous fronds (the same in form but fully twice the size of 
Latania Bourbonica or Corypha Australis) might be seen in several places 
spreading gracefully over a native hut. Near to the chief’s house (who, by 
sugar-cane tops. In the t As om there was a handsome suite of furni- 
ture, which I learned had been PT from Sydney a few months previous 
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