xxvi ALYXIA 



345 



archipelagoes. Two species, A. stellata and A. scandens, range 

 over the South Pacific from Fiji to Tahiti, the last-named also 

 occurring in the Paumotu or Low Archipelago ; whilst Rarotonga 

 possesses a form closely allied to the first-named, and to it Cheese- 

 man has given specific rank. Another species, A. bracteolosa, 

 links together the contiguous Fijian, Tongan, and Samoan groups. 

 This distribution is what we should have expected if one or two 

 polymorphous species had originally ranged over the Pacific and 

 were advancing towards that stage of differentiation when each 

 group possesses its own peculiar species. (It may be here 

 remarked that an undetermined species of Alyxia is accredited by 

 Maiden to Pitcairn Island, which indicates that the genus has 

 extended east in the Pacific almost as far as the extreme limit of 

 the Polynesian region. — Anstralas. Assoc. Reports, Melb., 1901, viii.) 



All visitors to these islands that are interested in their floras 

 will be familiar with the Alyxias ; and there are few of their plants 

 that the natives take more pleasure in pointing out to white men. 

 They are readily recognised on account of their black moniliform 

 drupes and their milky sap. All over Polynesia, whether in 

 Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, or Fiji, the aborigines value the plants on 

 account of the delicate fragrance of their foliage and bark. These 

 materials they use for personal decoration and in making wreaths, 

 stripping off the bark of the young branches with their teeth in the 

 same fashion in Fiji and Hawaii and probably in all the Pacific 

 islands. Throughout Polynesia, excluding Fiji, they bear the same 

 name, which takes the form of " maile " in Hawaii and Samoa, and 

 of " maire " in Tahiti and Rarotonga — a name which the Maoris, 

 remembering the Alyxias of their tropical home in the South 

 Pacific, have applied to New Zealand species of Olea and Eugenia. 

 The Fijian generic name for Alyxia is " vono." 



A word may be said about the station of these plants in the 

 Pacific islands. In Hawaii they occur in the middle and lower 

 forests, and usually between 2,000 and 4,000 feet in elevation. In 

 Tahiti they frequent the crests and precipitous rocky slopes of the 

 mountains at elevations of from 3,000 to over 6,000 feet. The 

 Rarotongan species often forms extensive thickets in rocky 

 localities on the hills. In Samoa they are found usually in the 

 mountain forests. In Fiji they grow on the outskirts of the virgin 

 forests and on rocky sparingly vegetated mountain peaks. I found 

 them often in Vanua Levu growing amongst the open vegetation 

 on the summits of isolated mountains at elevations of 2,000 to 

 2,500 feet, where they were associated with other plants like 



