190 



gathering. It grows wild everywhere throughout the 

 group, but it is most abundant ou land which has 

 been cultivated or cleared by forest fires. It is par- 

 ticularly common in the sheltered ravines and valleys 

 in the province of Navosa, Viti Levu. During 1875 

 the value of the candle-nuts exported was £65 ; in 

 1876, £1,562 9*. ; £3,010 in 1877, and £3,515 for 

 1878. The value on the spot, in 1877, was a little 

 above £10 per ton, and dming this year 300 were 

 gathered and exported. This alone will show the 

 value of the forest products of Fiji, and that the con- 

 servancy of the forests in these islands would, besides 

 being generally useful and beneficial to the colony in 

 the way previously indicated, pay its own costs. The 

 Laucl or Candle-nut tree, is evergreen. It grows 

 rapidly, and in any situation or soil, produces at an 

 early age, and reaches a height of 60 feet when grown 

 in good soil and sheltered situations. The wood, which 

 is white, soft, and light, is occasionally used by the 

 natives for various purposes, but it is not durable, 

 and therefore valueless for most industrial purposes. 

 The leaves are lobed, or entire, variable in size from 

 2x3 to 9 X 12 inches in breadth and length. "When 

 young they are densely covered on the upper surface 

 with soft, hoary gray hairs, which gradually fall off, 

 and the leaves become smooth and green coloured 

 with age The flowers are borne on large panicles 

 which spring from the axils of the leaves or ends of 

 the branches. They arc white and not disagreeably 

 fragrant. The fruit is about the size of a small egg. 

 The outside is sofi and pulpy and readily decomposes. 

 The covering of the seed or kernel is a hard bony 

 substance, aboul the twelfth part of an inch in thick- 

 38. To gel rid of it the natives heat the nuts in a 



