GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 35 



Japan. The bark is used for manufacturing fishing lines, which 

 are white, hard and extremely strong. After it is peeled from 

 the twig the fibre is obtained, not by maceration, but by scraping 

 away the inner and outer layers of bark. 



An indigenous Fig is known as Ferra. It resembles the 

 illustration, PL Ixiv., of Ficus aspera in the Flora Vitiensis, 

 producing small green fruit the size of marbles, and rarely 

 attaining an altitude of twenty feet. The root, " djakka ferra," 

 formerly yielded excellent fibre for cordage, equal to that obtained 

 from Broiissonetia, but is no longer employed. It was manufac- 

 tured from the bark of the root by peeling, chewing, and drying 

 it in the sun. A dish from the fruit of the Ferra was prepared 

 by pounding it up with coconut milk. In Fiji, "when the 

 plantations of Broussonetia papyrifera fail to produce a sufficient 

 quantity of raw material for making native cloth, recourse is had 

 to the Baka, Ficus obliqua, Forster."* 



Several different species of trees which agree in having white, 

 scented, night flowering blossoms, and somewhat similar foliage, 

 are apt at first acquaintance to be confounded with each other. 

 Indeed, all the flowers seen on the island, with the exception of 

 Malvaceous plants, the Dioclea, and a minute small flowered 

 convolvulus, were white or green. 



On landing, the first plant encountered is almost sure to be 

 the Ngashu (Sccevola kcenigii). This is a thickly growing shrub 

 about eight feet high, with bare stems and terminal tufts of large 

 fleshy leaves, among which are borne the inconspicuous white 

 flowers and white berries. The wood is very soft, hollow, with a 

 white central pith like elder. These plants love to grow at the 

 very margin of the sea. The pith is said to have been used for 

 caulking the seams of canoes. 



Some of the most sterile tracts in Funafuti, of decaying coral 

 washed by high tides, were densely overgrown by the Ngia or 

 Ingia bush, for the botanical name of which, Femphis acidula, 

 Forst., I am indebted to Mr. E. Betche, who made the acquain- 

 tance of this plant in the Marshall Islands. To whites it is 

 known as ironwood, and is valued as furnishing the best firewood 

 on the island. The natives carve the hard wood into various 

 implements, and in former times weapons. The Ngia has small 

 white flowers, narrow linear leaves, stem and branches like an 

 overgrown heath, and attains a height of six or seven feet. Its 

 general aspect reminded me of the " Manuka " of New Zealand, 

 also a gregarious shrub delighting in the worst of soils. To this 

 widespread species, a characteristic of atoll floras, evidently refer 



* Seemann loc. tit., p. 251. 



