196 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



planted out with these plants (Colocasia macrorhiza, etc., or 

 Tara, as the natives call them), as potato-fields are in Eng- 

 land. (Plate X.) The plants are placed in deep trenches, 

 at equal distances from each other, the trenches being so 

 deep that the leaves of the plant only just project over the 

 edge. A large field of these leaves, surrounded by the Plan- 

 tain and Sugar-cane, whose various shades of green contrast 

 so pleasantly with each other, is said to give " a very agree- 

 able tone to the landscape." The quantity of water which 

 these plants require is the reason for planting them in 

 trenches, into which water can be turned at will. The 

 tuber is about the size of a child's head, and is cooked by 

 being boiled, or baked in hot earth. Sometimes the Sand- 

 wich cooks show their skill by cutting it in slices, and fry- 

 ing it with lard ; but the most common process is to boil 

 it, and then mash it into frumenty, which is allowed to fer- 

 ment before it is considered fit to be " served up." When 

 a baked pig is in the question, the leaves are also put in 

 requisition, for " stuffing," and these two dishes, baked pig 

 and frumenty, form a chief feature in the Sandwich dinners 

 and dejeuners, which, be it observed, according to the laws of 

 etiquette in that part of the world, are never a lafourchette. 

 When we again set forward from the Sandwich Islands, 



