292 A MISSION TO VITI. 



The Sogo grows in swamps, and the natives occasion- 

 ally take advantage of the open places among the groves 

 to plant taro, or even clear Sogo land for that purpose. 

 The dimensions of the finest specimens were accurately 

 measured. The largest trees felled were from forty to 

 fifty feet high, and their trunks, in the thickest parts, 

 from three feet nine inches to four feet four inches in 

 circumference. The trunk is very straight, and densely 

 covered with aerial roots, six to twelve lines long, all 

 having the peculiarity of being directed upwards. The 

 crown generally consists of about sixteen living leaves 

 in all stages of development, and there are mostly five 

 or six dead ones still adhering to it. The pinnatifid 

 leaves are of a dark green, seventeen feet long ; whilst 

 the leaflets, gracefully drooping at the tips, are from 

 three and a half to four feet long, and three and a half 

 inches broad. The petiole is covered with spines, which 

 at its base are arranged in connected rows extending 

 from side to side, and towards the top in horse-shoe- 

 shaped collections. The spines are brown, and from one 

 and a half to two and a half inches long. When the 

 tree has attained maturity there appears a terminal pa- 

 nicle about twelve feet high, and divided into twenty 

 or more branches. These branches measure eight feet 

 in length, and are again divided into about fourteen 

 branchlets (each averaging from fourteen to sixteen 

 inches). The fruit, in outer appearance resembling an 

 inverted pine-cone, is beautifully polished and of a 

 yellowish brown, much lighter than that of Sagus Hum- 

 hiiy Mart. This palm forms a prominent feature in the 

 landscape, the foliage fluttering like gigantic plumes in 



