xxvin PRE-POLYNESIAN FOOD-PLANTS 413 



of the second set belong to the later occupants of these islands, the 

 Polynesians. 



(a) The P re-Polynesian food-plants. In addition to those above 

 named one may mention Cycas circinalis, Cyrtosperma edulis, 

 Lablab vulgaris, Pandanus odoratissimus, Saccharum officinarum, 

 Sagus vitiensis, &c. Inocarpus edulis is probably to be here 

 included, and amongst the Wild Yams should be named Dioscorea 

 nummularia and D. pentaphylla. Some of them are now 

 occasionally cultivated ; but most of them only occur in the wild 

 condition, either as weeds or as larger plants growing spontaneously 

 in uncultivated localities. Even the knowledge of them as food- 

 plants has sometimes been altogether lost, the present inhabitants 

 of the Fijis, for instance, knowing nothing of Lablab vulgaris and 

 Sagus vitiensis as sources of food. The question of the antiquity v 

 of the Coco-nut Palm in Polynesia was discussed at length by 

 Seemann ; but for various reasons we cannot be absolutely certain 

 whether or not it is an older denizen of the Pacific islands than the 

 Polynesian. It is, however, to be inferred that it came originally 

 from the home of the genus in America, perhaps as a gift brought 

 by the Equatorial Current from the New World to Asia. Several 

 chapters might be devoted to the discussion of the earlier food- 

 plants of these islanders ; but here only a brief reference can be 

 made to a few of them. 



Perhaps the oldest of the earliest aboriginal food-plants are 

 those that, like Cyrtosperma edulis and Sagus vitiensis, are 

 apparently confined to Fiji. Here we seem to possess indications 

 of the development of new species since that group was first 

 occupied by man. Others, like Pachyrrhizus trilobus and Cycas 

 circinalis, that are restricted to the groups of the Western Pacific 

 may come next in relative antiquity. 



Although most of the early food-plants hail from the Old World, - 

 the home of Pachyrrhizus is in America. One may indeed wonder 

 how a plant with such a history ever reached the Western Pacific. 

 It seems to be generally distributed in this part of the ocean, having 

 been recorded from New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, Fiji, Tonga, 

 and Samoa. Although its edible roots are only used in times of 

 scarcity, the plant grows wild all over Fiji, being especially frequent 

 in the " talasinga " plains. Though I searched diligently, it never 

 presented me with its seed. In Tonga, according to Graeffe (as 

 quoted by Reinecke) the plant is much employed in preparing the 

 land for yam-cultivation, since it restrains the growth of weeds and 

 keeps the soil moist. 



