366 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



with an airy canopy, below which the eye sees the 

 sky shining between the slender stems : the bamboo 

 retires ; the other elements of the Flora are otlier- 

 wise combined. Gtaheite has many plants whicli 

 seem to be wanting in the Sandwich islands, 

 and these again, others that are not found in 

 Otaheite.* 



The heights of Owhyee, adjacent to the regions 

 of eternal snow, remain the most mysterious, and 

 the most tempting task for the botanist, so long as 

 the harvest which Menzies reaped there shall be 

 withheld from the learned world. 



Easter Island, the nearest to the American 

 coast, is the most scantily apportioned, but indeed 

 it is situated beyond the tropic. 



Assumption (an inhospitable volcano to the 

 north of the Ladrones, in about 20° north latitude) 

 afforded a richer harvest to the scientific gentlemen 

 of La Peyrouse's expedition. 



Vegetation seems to settle late and hesitatingly 

 in the lower islands. Numerous sand-banks of con- 

 siderable extent, shine, white and bare, above the 

 surface of the waves. When once commenced, it 

 perhaps makes a rapid progress, yet it appears in 

 a very unequal state of forwardness in the several 

 islands and island-groups. 



Where the cocoa-tree has penetrated, the earth 

 is ready for tlie reception of man, and man is 



* In Otaheite the Baringtonia speciosa and Casnarina eqvi- 

 setifolia : in the Sandwich islands the Santalum. 



