482 FOOD PLANTS OB^ ANCIENT AMERICA. 



"The whole surface of these flat coral islands is like the clean white 

 sanded floor of an old English kitchen. The cocoanut tree springs up 

 everywhere, but in the spots where yams and taros are grown the sand 

 is hollowed out and a pit formed, from 100 to 200 3'ards long and of 

 varying width, into which decaying cocoanut leaves and refuse are 

 thrown till a rich soil is formed."" 



"The position occupied b}' the PoljMiesian races as tillers of the soil 

 has hardly had suflicient attention given to it, although it may be 

 doubted whether any people ignorant of the uses of the metals ever 

 advanced so far as they have done. * "^ * Let an}" one read the 

 account given b}' the first visitors to New Zealand — especially Cook — 

 respecting the Maori cultivations of those days — the care that was 

 taken to keep them free from weeds; the labor expended in convej'- 

 ing gi'avel to hill up the kumara plantations; the trouble taken to 

 protect them from the strong wnnds by means of temporary screens 

 or fences; the months employed in building houses (often highl}" 

 carved and decorated) in which to store their crops; the amount of 

 patient care and selection required in raising new varieties."^ 



The agricultural achievements of the Pol3'nesians become even more 

 impressive when we reflect that so many of their cultivated species 

 were not propagated from seeds but from cuttings. These must have 

 been carefully packed, kept moist with fresh water, and protected 

 against the salt spray, to survive the long voyages in open canoes. 

 A list of 24 species of plants believed to have been brought to the 

 Hawaiian Islands by prehistoric colonists is given by Hillebrand." 

 This number, however, must be greatl}' increased, since there were 

 many varieties of the sweet potato, taro, sugar cane, and banana. 

 Moreover, the Hawaiian group is scarceh' more than subtropical in 

 climate, and lacks numerous seedless sorts of the breadfruit, vam, taro, 

 and other plants of the equatorial belt of islands, so that a complete 

 enumeration of the species and varieties carried about by the early 

 Polynesians among the islands of the Pacific would include nearl}' 100. 



There are manj' indications to be drawn from the people themselves, 

 as well as from the abundance of ancient ruins, that the archipelagoes 



« Moresby, Discoveries and Surveys of New Guinea, p. 73, London, 1876. The vol- 

 canic islands of Polynesia have, of course, rich soil, but they shared the deficiency 

 of native food plants, so that nonagricultural 2:)eople could scarcely have secured a 

 permanent food supply. 



It is certain, moreover, that among the Polynesians the cocoanut is a cultivated 

 plant no less than the yam, taro, sweet potato, sugar cane, banana, breacifruit, and 

 numerous other species found in use throughout the tropical islands of the Pacific. 

 An especial interest attaches to the cocoanut in that there are adequate liotanical 

 reasons for believing that it originated in America, the home of all related palms. 

 See The Origin and Distribution of the Cocoa Palm, Contributions from the U. S. 

 National Herljarium, Vol. VII, No. 2, Washington, 1901. 



'^Cheeseman, Trans. New Zealand Inst., 3.3:307-308. 1901. 



'^ Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, Introd., p. xvi, 18SS. 



