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found in the mountains it is in hollows or flats, where the soil 

 is rich. It is not uncommon, and a good many specimens of 

 it may be seen during- a day's journey. It is not gregarious, 

 but three or four trees of it may casually be found near each 

 other. 



When the trunk of the tree is wounded, a thin white juice 

 flows freely from it. The Fijians say that the juice curdles, 

 and produces bad caoutchouc. 



I could not obtain any caoutchouc from it, though I tried 

 on several occasions. Perhaps this was owing to the small 

 quantity of juice used, and its watery nature. The juice 

 requires a great amount of evaporation before caoutchouc can 

 be obtained from it. On that account it may be dispensed 

 with. 



The climbers belonging to the genera Alyxia and Lysonsia 

 are not uncommon in many parts of Fiji. They are mojst 

 abundant, however, in virgin forests, in the outskirts especially. 

 They attain a large size, and spread to a great distance, over- 

 topping the trees to which they cling, and frequently killing 

 them. Their leaves, on foot-stalks from 1 to 2 inches long, 

 are opposite (verticillate two to four in a whorl in Alyxia) 

 rough or smooth, from 2 to 6 inches broad, and 3 to 9 inches 

 long, ovate or oblong. Flowers white, generally fragrant, 

 rising from axils of the leaves or ends of the branches in 

 large cymes, bi- or tri-chotomously divided. 



Fruit of Lysonsia is capsular, that of Alyxia is a soft 

 fibrous drupe. They yield milk abundantly, which readily 

 coagulates. They are rude, large growing plants, requiring 

 supports, and the idea of cultivating them is therefore a 

 questionable one. They are not sufficiently numerous in one 

 part of the forest to render the collection of their juice remune- 

 rative. 



Specimens of the large-leaved and small-leaved species of 

 Alstonia are enclosed. The former grows to about 30 feet in 

 height, Laving a trunk which sometimes attains a diameter of 

 it <a- so. 



The small-leaved species is in every way a much smaller 

 tree. It seldom exceeds 15 feet in height, and the diameter of 

 trunk i- rarely beyond (> inches. 



This species is most frequently found on the crests of ridges, 

 legations of LOO feet above the sea, to the tops of the 

 highest mountains in Fiji. It does not yield juice freely nor 

 abundantly. 



