254 APPENDIX I. 



season, and two harvests of rice produced within the year. But in spite of 

 the steady and somewhat high temperature, there is but little of the tropical 

 element in the ai)pearance of the islands themselves. The dull monotonous 

 green of the mangroves is wanting on their shores. The exuberant vegetation 

 of the true tropic island has given place to pine-crowned hills and a park -like 

 country which in many places is almost English in character. Both Beechey 

 and Perry, it is true, have described the coco-palm as existing in the neigh- 

 bouihood of Napha, but none were seen during our visit. Even if it has not 

 died out, however, its presence is cj^uite abnormal, for the position of the 

 islands is beyond the latitude in which it is possible for its fruit to ripen. It 

 is not even cultivated in Formosa — nearly one-half of which island, as we 

 have seen, lies actually within the Tropic. The characteristics of the vegeta- 

 tion are for the most part those of temperate regions, and though the 

 pandanus and that gigantic laurel, — the camphor-tree of Formosa, — both of 

 which have their true homes in the moister and warmer regions farther south, 

 are found in the Liu-kii;s, the abundance of northern fruits, vegetables, and 

 cereals, together with the lovely nymphsea, the hedges of dwarf bamboo, the 

 camellias, mallows, and peach-trees, remind the traveller strongly of Japan. 

 Possibly when the word health-resort has been admitted into the vocabulary 

 of Tokio physicians, and the advantages of the choice of twelve hundred 

 miles of latitude realised, we shall find Liu-kiu transformed into the Madeira 

 of the East, and the daimios and their families, tall hats and black frock-coats 

 included, flocking to Kapha with the same regularity with which the fashion- 

 able poitrinaire of New York seeks health and high life in Jacksonville. There 

 is but little doubt that, as a winter residence for those wdth delicate lungs, the 

 islands would be infinitely su^Derior to many Mediterranean and other towns 

 where the patients from our own land of damp and fog in many cases vainly 

 await amelioration of their symptoms. Malarial fevers are apparently rare 

 or even unknown, and the population appears remarkably healthy. With the 

 exception of a single case of elephantiasis, no invalids were seen during the 

 Marchesci's visit, and though several individuals were noticed who had suffered 

 from smallpox, — a very common disease in Japan — deformed people and 

 cripples were conspicuous by their absence. 



Good as the climate of the Liu-kiu group undoubtedly is, there is a thorn 

 attaching which is common to all the pleasant islands in these latitudes. 

 They too, like Formosa, have a typhoon season, and though the strength of 

 these sudden but terrific gales appears to be less here than in the Bonin 

 Islands, or on the China coast, they are sufficiently severe to cause considerable 

 damage to the crops, and to expose the shipping to no little risk. Najjha- 

 kiang, on these occasions, is by no means a safe harbour, but Oonting, or Port 

 Melville, as it was named by Captain Maxwell during the voyage of the 



