PALMS. 373 



description of this palm ; the upper segments are four 

 feet long and three inches broad. The spadix, like that 

 of the Niu sawa, is much branched, and may be said to 

 be a miniature imitation of it. The palm is found both 

 in Vanua Levu and Ovalau, and doubtless also in Viti 

 Levu, for a palm which grows in the interior of the 

 latter islands, and is termed about Namosi " Tankua," 

 must, from the description given to me by natives, be 

 identical with the Cagicake. According so the super- 

 stitious notion of the inland tribes of Viti Levu, the di- 

 minutive fruit of the Tankua and those of the Boia (He- 

 liconia? sp.), a plantain-like species, is the chief food 

 of the Veli, spirits half fairy, half gnome, with a fair 

 complexion and diminutive body. The Tankua is their 

 cocoa-nut, the Boia their plantain, and the Yaqoyaqona 

 ( Macropiper puberulum, Benth.), their kava plant, none 

 of which mortals can destroy or injure without exposing 

 themselves to the danger of being severely punished by 

 those dwellers in the forests, the Veli. 



The Balaka (Ptychosperma Seemanni, Wendl.) is a 

 diminutive palm, growing as underwood in dense forests. 

 It was met with both in Vanua Levu, on the southern 

 side, and on the mountains of Taviuni. The trunk is 

 remarkably straight, ringed, and about an inch in dia- 

 meter when fully developed. On account of its strength 

 and straightness it is used for spears by the natives, and 

 would make good walking-sticks. The leaves are pinna- 

 tisect, about four feet long ; and the segments are eroso- 

 dentate at the point, like those of Caryota and Wallichia. 

 The flowers appear below the few leaves, forming the 

 crown of this, the smallest of all Fijian palms. 



