PALMS. 369 



Somosomo dialect, which suppresses the letter #, Saii, 

 there are never more than one or two solitary speci- 

 mens to be met with in any place, the demand for the 

 leaves being so limited, that they prove sufficient to 

 supply it. The fans are from two to three feet across, 

 and have a border made of a flexible wood. They 

 serve as a protection both from the sun and rain ; in 

 the latter instance the fan is laid almost horizontally on 

 the head, the water being allowed to run down behind 

 the back of the bearer. From this the Fijian language 

 has borrowed its name for " umbrella, 1 ' a contrivance 

 introduced by Europeans, terming it " ai viu," that being 

 one of the names by which fans are known. The leaves 

 are never employed as thatch, though their texture 

 would seem to recommend them for that purpose; the 

 trunk, however, is occasionally used for ridge-beams. 

 The palm seldom attains more than thirty feet in height. 

 Its trunk is smooth, straight, and unarmed, and from 

 ten to twelve inches in diameter at the base. The 

 crown has a globular shape, and is composed of about 

 twenty leaves, the petioles of which are unarmed and 

 three feet four inches long, and densely covered at the 

 base with a mass of brown fibres. The blade of the 

 leaves is rounded at the base, fan-shaped, four feet seven 

 inches long, three feet three inches broad, and when 

 young, as is the petiole, densely covered with whitish- 

 brown down, which, however, as the leaf advances in 

 age, gradually disappears. From the axil of every leaf 

 flowers are put forward, enveloped in several very fibrous 

 flaccid spathes, which rapidly decay, and have quite a 

 ragged appearance even before the flowers are open. 



2 B 



