WAKAYA. 59 



excursion produced several plants not previously noticed, 

 and also resulted in the discovery of an entirely new 

 genus of Ehamnacece, which I have called, in honour of 

 Colonel Smythe, R.A., Smythea pacifica.* 



Steering in a south-westerly direction, we sighted the 

 island of Koro, or Goro as some charts erroneously term 

 it, where an immense number of yams are grown, and 

 the souls of all the pigs killed in the group are supposed 

 to go. A little further on we passed Wakaya, a small 

 island belonging to Dr. Brower, and the site of a settle- 

 ment chiefly composed of half-castes, who, besides at- 

 tending to the sheep and cattle, look after the planta- 

 tions of sugar, coffee, and cotton the enterprising Doc- 

 tor has established. The most remarkable fact con- 

 nected with Wakaya is its being one of the places 

 where the Balolo, a curious annelidan, makes its periodi- 

 cal appearance. Of the very existence of this singular 

 animal naturalists knew nothing, until a few years ago 

 Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, described it under 

 the name of Palolo viridis, adopting its Samoan and 

 Tonguese vernacular name for the genus ; and Dr. Mac- 

 donald wrote on its anatomy. The time when the Ba- 

 lolo comes in may be termed the Fijian whitebait 

 season. It is watched for with the greatest anxiety, 

 and predicted with unerring certainty from the phases 

 of the moon. The first of these worm-like creatures 

 floating on the surface of the ocean are seen in October, 



* A coloured plate and a full description of this singular genus, closely 

 allied to Ventilago, with which it agrees in habit to a remarkable degree, 

 but differing by having a veritable dehiscent capsule, instead of a drupe, 

 has been published in ' Bonplandia,' vol. x. p. 69, tab. 9. Additional par- 

 ticulars will be found in my ' Flora Yitiensis.' 



