4a A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



reservation there are very few littoral plants in Fiji that do not at 

 times leave the coast. 



Caesalpinia Bonducella may be taken as a type of those shore- 

 plants that stray far away from the coast, even into the interior of 

 continents, since in India it reaches the Himalayas. Although 

 Terminalia Katappa and Calophyllum Inophyllum often owe 

 their existence inland in different parts of the tropics to man's 

 agency, this cannot be said of most others, as Cassytha filiformis, 

 Casuarina equisetifolia,Cycas circinalis, Ipomea pes capra2,Pandanus 

 odoratissimus, Premna tahitensis, Tacca pinnatifida, Tephrosia 

 piscatoria, Vitex trifolia, &c, when they occupy the extensive 

 inland plains that slope to the coasts on the lee sides of the large 

 inlands of Fiji. Plants, like Hibiscus tiliaceus, are found in a 

 Pacific island almost as frequently away from the beach as on the 

 beach itself; and this is true of most other regions of the tropics 

 where it occurs. 



Other plants that appear to be altogether confined to the 

 sandy beach in Fiji, break away on rare occasions from their 

 usual station and appear on the bare rocky summits of hills near 

 the coast, even though the hill-slopes are densely wooded. On 

 such bare hilltops in Vanua Levu, varying from 500 to 1,100 feet 

 in elevation, one is surprised at times to find shore creepers and 

 climbers like Canavalia obtusifolia and Derris uliginosa associated 

 with other beach-plants more frequently found inland, such as 

 Tephrosia piscatoria and Vitex trifolia, and in the company of 

 climbing species of Morinda and of small trees of Fagraea 

 Berteriana. When the "talasinga" (sun-burnt) districts, as the 

 Fijians term the plains on the north sides of the islands, extend a 

 long distance from the coast into the heart of the island, they carry 

 with them their peculiar vegetation and the intruding beach-plants 

 up to considerable elevations above the sea. We then find 

 familiar beach-plants like Cerbera Odollam and Ipomea pes caprae 

 growing far inland at heights of 1,000 feet and over above the sea. 

 (See Notes 20 and 21.) 



One is never quite sure of the behaviour of shore-plants in Fiji 

 when the " talasinga " plains lie behind the beach, since even 

 ScKvola Kcenigii, usually a steadfast beach-plant, occurs at times 

 some miles inland. (See Notes 20 and 55.) There are, however, 

 a few that never came under my notice inland, such as Pemphis 

 acidula, Triumfetta procumbens, and Tournefortia argentea. The 

 extension of sea-coast plants for any distance inland depends 

 a good deal on the occurrence of scantily-vegetated plains, or of 



