m 
eee 
A BOTANICAL TOUR AMONG THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. 131 
o existence of this tree at least three miles away from the valley in which it 
as growing. The first hint was by a native pointing first to a piece of yellow 
ius (which I carried with other things for the purpose of payment), and then 
to a tree, by which I immediately understood what was meant. During our 
jaunt back in another direction, I found many other treasures, one in particu 
belonging to the Order Musacec,a genus between Heliconia nig "weed. ae 
ing immense leaves beautifully striped with almost every color 
e Tanese are, of the New Hebrideans, although not a silet, the most 
muscular, and mentally the superior race. Two natives who could speak En- 
glish well enough to be understood, while going with me in search of plants, 
expressed themselves thus :—“ Spose missi-on-a-ry come live Tana plenty Tana 
man come down kill it missi-on-ar-y like it pig.” And I believe they would be 
savage enough to do so. 
In many places in Tana, but not in any other island of the New Hebrides, 
a fine species of Myristica was — On either side of the track to the 
volcano, some specimens of it were growing to fifteen or sixteen feet, and be- 
neath them the ground was covered with their fruit 
In Eromanga we remained only a couple of hours, but in Vate or Sandwich 
sees several days. 
ving first visited Havannah harbour, and afterwards Vela harbour, I had 
a see opportunity of penetrating for a considerable distance into the mainland. 
es 
immy - Charcoal," came a us ^ night in a boat. He could speak English 
= Accordingly, I accompanied him in his canoe to the shore, where 
a thicket., The other natives, however, seemed to be good-humoured-looking 
fellows, and so we proce on some three or four miles further, greatly en- 
ed by the appearance of the distant vegetation, which eonsisted prin- 
— of dense, more or less broken, belts of Casuarina, Melaleuca, Barring- 
ia, Erythrina, forests of Plantain, hus fruit lying in heaps upon the ground ; 
ony like spaces of hundreds of acres in extent; groups of Palms and Tree- 
ferns of great beauty, which gave to the landscape a peculiarly charming effect, 
h as I had not me witnessed in other islands, but in parts of Vate 
I found the vegetation poor and seanty, as it formed a garden of beauty and 
fertility in others. On the dir however, I should think that Vate, from its 
ig admirably ailapisd. for the growth of cotton, would not be a bad locality 
