286 A MISSION TO VITI. 



oil, the native process being of a primitive description. 

 To remedy this evil, Captain Wilson and M. Joubert, of 

 Sydney, have set up proper machinery on their estate at 

 Somosomo, after one of the partners had familiarized 

 himself with the latest improvement in that branch of 

 industry in Ceylon ; and it is their intention to take ad- 

 vantage of the luxuriant manner in which Coboi, or 

 lemon-grass (Andropogon Schoenanthus, Linn.), grows in 

 Fiji, by cultivating it for the purpose of making citro- 

 nella oil. Cocoa-nut oil congealing at a temperature of 

 about 72 Fahr., and the thermometer during the cool 

 months often falling below that degree, a proper amount 

 of warmth will be kept up whilst the operation of press- 

 ing the pulverized kernels is going on, and thus another 

 step be taken towards the making of the largest quan- 

 tity of oil from the least number of nuts. Wilkes, upon 

 the authority of one of the scientific men attached to 

 his expedition, states that there were only two varieties 

 of cocoa-nut, a green and a brown. Closer attention to 

 the subject would have shown this to be a mistake ; not 

 only the colour, but also the average size and shape of 

 the fruits, the height of the trees, and the insertion of 

 the leaflets, or rather segments, offer marks of distinc- 

 tion between the numerous varieties with which the is- 

 lands are studded. The most striking kind is the one 

 having fruits not much larger than a turkey's egg, and 

 bearing more than a hundred of them in each bunch. 

 Several trees were noticed at Kadavu. about Yarabale, 

 a narrow isthmus, where canoes are dragged across from 

 sea to sea. The curious phenomenon of a cocoa-nut 

 palm becoming, as it were, branched by the division of 



