COLONIAL PRODUCE. 281 



staple products of the country; the mountain slopes of 

 the larger islands, especially those of Viti Levu, Vanua 

 Levu, and Kadavu, and, above all, those of the valley of 

 Namosi, seeming well adapted for its growth. Several 

 old coffee-trees are to be found in the Rewa district, 

 showing the plant to be not of recent introduction. 

 Dr. Brower, American Consul, has established a plan- 

 tation on his estate at Wakaya, which gives fair pro- 

 mise ; and Mr. Binner, of Levuka, has in his garden a 

 number of thriving seedlings. The tamarind (Tamarin- 

 dus Indica, Linn.) was introduced about eighteen years 

 ago ; and there is a fine tree, thirty feet high, and of 

 corresponding dimensions, on the Somosomo estate of 

 Captain Wilson and M. Joubert, of Sydney. 



Tobacco (Nicotiana Tabacum, Linn.), a pink-flowering 

 kind, is grown about towns and villages in patches, 

 never exceeding a few rods in extent, but in sufficient 

 quantity to keep the bulk of the population sup- 

 plied. Both men and women use it for smoking only, 

 either out of pipes or made into cigarettes with dry 

 banana-leaves"; the filthy habit of chewing or taking 

 snuff does not seem to be practised by them, though, 

 had they been so inclined, they might have learned it 

 from the lower class of white settlers. Being unac- 

 quainted with the process of curing the leaf successfully, 

 the natives greatly prefer our tobacco to their own, and 

 are thankful for the gift of a piece, however small, but 

 rather loth to regard it in the light of payment for 

 goods or services rendered, preferring any other article 

 of barter, inferior though it may be in value to the to- 

 bacco offered. 



