32 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



these, the first examples noted, were too lofty to show flower or 

 fruit, but the peltate leaf, alluded to by the specific name, enabled 

 me to recognise later the species, in a graceful round topped tree, 

 twenty feet high, growing in the open. The curious capsule of 

 the bell shaped fruit recalled that of the Cape Gooseberry. 

 During our stay on Funafuti several canoes, " vaka," were built, 

 all of which were carved out of the soft white Pouka wood, 

 together with their accessories, balers, outriggers and paddles. 

 In past times, from seed of this, the pigment used in tatooing 

 was made. 



For posts and the frames of houses the natives had recourse to 

 the hard, heavy, white wood of the Fau (Ochrosia parviflorus, 

 Henslow), a smooth barked, small, round topped tree, twenty-five 

 feet in height and a foot in diameter, which flourished among 

 broken coral debris, independent of sand or soil. In hot weather 

 the dense foliage of large, smooth, glossy leaves offered a refresh- 

 ing shade. The nuts, which Darwin aptly compared to walnuts 

 in appearance, turn yellow when ripe, and hang from long stalks 

 in clusters of twos and threes. Beneath the tree are thickly 

 scattered on the ground the fallen fruit, looking, when the outer 

 rind decays, as if meshed in netting. No use is made of these 

 nuts by the natives.* 



Only one clump of the handsome Barringtonia butonica, Forst., 

 was seen, it grew a little beyond the north arm of the mangrove 

 swamp. I am not aware if the Rarotongan methodf of poisoning 

 fish with Barringtonia was practised by the Ellice Islanders. 

 Of the uses to which this tree is put in Fiji, Seemann writes : " A 

 magnificent seaside tree, from which liku (woman's dress) is made. 

 The large square fruits are used by the natives for floats of fishing 

 nets, and in a favourite game (veitegi vutu). The outer portion 

 of the fruit, which is poisonous, is employed for stupefying fish, 

 for the purpose of catching them."| 



Around the swamp a hedge of Tonga (Rhizophora mucronata, 

 Lamk.) extended for most of its circumference. This was the 

 only spot it inhabited in the atoll, and no other species of 

 mangrove grows in Funafuti. The arched hoop-like roots, spring- 

 ing high from the trunk, stretch out for yards across the mud, 

 and from them spring smaller and yet smaller hoops that anchor 

 the tree further and further into the swamp. The pendulous 

 viviparous fruit is called " pika." It is not used for food upon 



* In the Solomons, "The fruit of the common littoral tree Ochrosia 

 parviflora ("pokosola") contains an edible flat kernel." Guppy Solomon 

 Islands, 1887, p. 87. 



f Gill loc. cit., p. 140. 



Seemann loc. cit., p. 87. See also Guppy Solomon Islands, 1887, 

 p. 158. 



