EDIBLE FRUIT. 317 



encountered, and there appear to be several varieties. 

 It is sixty feet high, and shares with most Fijian fruit- 

 trees the peculiarity of yielding a useful timber. The 

 leaves are pinnate, the leaflets serrate, and when first 

 opening, display a brilliant red tinge, which at a dis- 

 tance looks as if the tree were in bloom. The flowers, 

 arranged in terminal panicles, are whitish and of dimi- 

 nutive size. The fruit, ripening in January and Febru- 

 ary, has rather a glutinous honey-like taste, and attains 

 about the size of a pomegranate. The Fijians deem the 

 Dawa peculiar to their islands. It certainly does not 

 occur to the eastward in a wild state, as the Tonguese 

 are said to have obtained it from Fiji; but it seems to 

 be quite common in all the groups lying westwards, the 

 New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and others. A native 

 of Were assured me it was plentiful in his island, and 

 Dr. Bennett, of Sydney, found it cultivated under the 

 name of " Thav," at Kotuma, a little island to the north 

 of Fiji, as recorded in his c Gatherings of a Naturalist.' 

 I succeeded in carrying living plants to the botanic gar- 

 den at Sydney, where they were left in charge of Mr. 

 Moore, and whence they may perhaps find their way to 

 the new colony of Queensland, and prove acceptable 

 additions to the fruits of that country. 



The Kavika or Malay-apple (Eugenia Malaccensis, 

 Linn.) abounds in all the forests. As in the Hawaiian 

 and other Polynesian islands, there are two varieties; 

 the purple (Kavika damudamu) and the white (Kavika 

 vulavula). When the tree, which attains about forty feet 

 in height, is in flower, the ground underneath is densely 

 covered with petals and stamens, looking, especially if 



