40 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



An Abutilon grew as a small shrub with handsome orange- 

 brown blossoms in dry sunny places. On the north-eastern islet 

 I once noticed an Ipomcea trailing over the ground. It resembled 

 in habit but differed in leaf from /. biloba, Forsk. ; neither flower 

 nor fruit was seen. No parasites or epiphytes were noticed with 

 the exception of a Cuscuta, which entangled low bushes in its 

 skeins of thread. The introduced couch grass, Cynodon dactylon, 

 had obtained a footing around the village. Another grass grew 

 thickly in small patches of swampy flats clear of trees. Two 

 species of mosses occurred, one probably Octoblepharum smarag- 

 dinum* Mitten, wrapped around the butts of the palms as a soft 

 green mantle a handsbreadth deep. 



The fallen trunks of trees were encrusted by a fungus, possibly 

 a species of Polyporus. 



A specimen of Azolla rubra, floating in the men's bathing pool, 

 was the only instance of aquatic 'vegetation that came under my 

 notice. 



A log came ashore upon the windward reef, which an 

 experienced bushman of our party having split and chewed, 

 determined by its grain and taste to be New Zealand kauri, 

 Dammar a australis, Lamb. "An occasional log drifts to the 

 shores, and at some of the more isolated atolls, where the natives 

 are ignorant of any land but the spot they inhabit, they are 

 deemed direct gifts from a propitiated deity. These drift logs 

 were noticed by Kotzebue at the Marshall Islands, and he 

 remarked also that they often brought stones in their roots. 

 Similar facts have been observed at the Gilbert Group, and 

 also at Enderby's Island, and many other coral islands in the 

 Pacific, "f 



SUMMARY. 



My observations on the Funafuti plants used by the islanders 

 are far from exhaustive. A thorough inquiry into such a 

 subject can only be undertaken with success by one speaking 

 the language fluently. Medicine and magic are too intimately 

 associated to be lightly discussed by a native herbalist, even in 

 the present stage of civilisation. I could not attempt to unravel 

 the sources of information, but some ideas at least of the virtues 

 of plants are recent importations from Fiji or Samoa. 



The above notes may thus be briefly classified : Food plants 

 Cocos, Pandanus, Ficus, and Cordyline; Fibre Cocos, Pan- 

 danus, Ficus, Hibiscus, and Broussonetia ; Timber Hernandia, 

 Ochrosia, Thespesia, Rhizophora, and Pemphis ; Dye Premna, 

 Morinda, and Rhizophora ; Scent Calophyllum, Guettarda, 



* Mitten Challenger Reports, Bot., ii., p. 254. 

 t Dana loc. cit., p. 287. 



