Notes on a Visit to Fernando Noronha. 431 



the attempt, a result quite as common as success. The 

 most remarkable of the trees are, first, the Ficus Noronhce. 

 Of it, the finest specimens are in the Governor's garden 

 behind the Praisidio, and show a complicated system of 

 interlacing trunks, and numberless bunches of aerial roots 

 hanging from the branches. The leaves are large, deep 

 green, glossy, ovate, and obtusely pointed. On one occasion 

 we came upon one with ripe figs, deep red in colour, of 

 sweetish taste, but of no great use as food; they were about 

 an inch in diameter, and almost spherical in form. The 

 next tree deserving notice is that known to the inhabitants 

 as Buna — the Laurelled hara of Webster — so much dreaded 

 for its milky juice, which is said to blister the skin. We 

 got it all over our hands repeatedly without feeling any 

 effect whatever ; but on two occasions Mr Lea got some in 

 his eye, which gave him much pain for some hours, but did 

 no further harm. It is very hot to the taste. Its baneful 

 effects seem to be over-rated ; a number of cattle and horses 

 were, however, pointed out to us with patches of hair re- 

 moved, which the people attributed to the action of this 

 juice. The stems of the plant are rather straight, the leaves 

 glossy, green, leathery, ovate, and lanceolate. We had great 

 trouble in finding the flowers, but at length succeeded in 

 getting some from trees which were almost bare of leaves ; 

 so it would appear that the flowers come out at one time, 

 and the leaves at another. The flowers are small, green in 

 colour, and of very simple construction. The males, which 

 occupy the upper part of the spike, consist of two stamens ; 

 and the females, which are situated at the base, are only an 

 ovary with a thoroughly euphorbiaceous aspect. We could 

 not find any fruit ; we seemed to have arrived at the wrong 

 time of the year for this purpose. Next may be mentioned 

 the Mulungu, probably the Erythrina exaltata of Webster, 

 and also, probably, the same as that described by Mosely in 

 the " Challenger " Eeports as an euphorbiaceous plant, with 

 rounded, bluish-green leaves and thorns. Webster described 

 it as the tallest tree on the island ; those we saw, however, 

 were all small, the larger ones having been cut down for the 

 reason already mentioned. It is said that a jiungada made 



