98 



named two are of recent introduction, and it is not 

 long since they began to bear fruit, but they will soon 

 be equally at home. The little black-fruited psidium 

 cattleyanum resembles the strawberry in taste, and is 

 i he best flavoured of the four. The yellow fruit of 

 psidium chinensis is the least palatable, but it makes 

 an excellent preserve. Guava jelly is made from the 

 first two, but there is not so much of it made in Fiji 

 as in Mauritius and some other countries. The 

 loquat, or bibassier, has also been introduced, but 

 at present it is only grown on the coast, where the 

 climate is too hot for it bearing well. In the tropics 

 it bears best in elevated situations, where the climate 

 almost resembles that of temperate regions. 



The white and the black fruited varieties of the 

 mulberry (moras indica) are common throughout 

 Fiji. Some towns in the interior of Viti Levu are 

 surrounded with a fence of them. A bank, or wall 

 of earth and stones, has been thrown up from 4 to 

 feet in height as a sort of fortification, with a 

 broad and deep ditch on the outside (frequently on 

 both sides of the bank). On the top of this wall or 

 bank, a thick fence of mulberries, lemons, and, in some 

 places, of barringtonia racemosa and jatropha cur- 

 cas, lias been planted. The two last chiefly at the 

 Koros on the coast or low]ands. The hollow trunks 

 of tret' ferns have been laid horizontally through the 

 wall, and used as loopholes for the defenders to fire 

 from. The healthy, thriving appearance of the mul- 

 berry in Fiji suggests that silk, in the form of cocoons, 

 miglrl be added to the products of the colony. No 

 doubi need be entertained about the suitability of the 

 climate of Fiji for rearing the silkworm, and the 

 cocoons could be produced very cheaply. " The growth 



