On the Botany of Tahiti. Ixxi 
The young plants may be easily distinguished from the banana by their 
pointed and wrinkled leaves, but the larger ones only by the presence of black 
patehes on the stem, which are not always very apparent, or by cutting it 
through, when it throws out a great quantity of deep purple juice. The 
plant when well grown is as large as the largest size banana, and bears a 
large upright scape of green flowers, about six under each bract or spathe, 
which is also green. The fruit, which, even when ripe, is completely hidden 
by the leaves, is of a dark orange-yellow colour, very closely crowded on the 
scape, the whole raceme being of a somewhat conical form, from the lower 
fruit being the largest. The eatable part is of a bright yellow colour, like 
gamboge, and is hardly eatable in a raw state ; not being sweet it is a very 
good vegetable when cooked ; or, when fully ripe, if well baked, it closely 
resembles baked sweet apples. It has the curious property of colouring the 
urine of a bright yellowish-green colour, which, however, does not continue ; 
but although the same quantity of the féi may be eaten every day, after about 
a week the original colour of the secretion will be restored. Iam not aware that 
it has any particular effect on the urinary organs, but the Europeans in general 
imagine that it has. The plant appears difficult to cultivate at the sea level, 
and I am afraid I shall not succeed in carrying any living ones even to New 
South Wales. It does not in general bear seed ; I have once seen it, but the 
seeds were abortive. Nevertheless, there is а plant in sparing cultivation at 
Tahiti which is evidently a hybrid between the féi and the banana, producing 
an enormous spike of fruit, which takes a horizontal direction. From the 
circumstance of the féi not producing seed, I have been disposed to doubt its 
being really indigenous to Tahiti; I should like much to know if there are 
any well-known instances of plants being barren in their true natural locality. 
An indigenous banana in New Holland produces seed abundantly. 
'The restrictions on personal liberty imposed by the French authorities at 
Tahiti in consequence of the war, are very vexatious. It is necessary to go 
to the “Ministre des Affaires Européennes" for a permission every time one 
wishes to go outside the posts, which are, all but one, quite in the town. 
I had a special permission to pass the more distant post whenever I pleased, 
in order to go to a garden formed by Capt. Bonard, of the frigate * Uranie,” 
where I had planted a number of my plants. This permission was headed 
** Permission jusqu ’a nouvel ordre"; nevertheless I was once turned back by 
the sergeant of the guard, under the pretence that all permissions required to 
be renewed each month, and mine was dated two months before. I was so 
well known that I was generally suffered to pass without any interruption. 
It was very little satisfaction to complain, and have the man reprimanded for 
his stupidity ; and this led me into a rather amusing collision with the 
sentries at another advanced post. A friend of mine, M. Eugene Vesco, a 
