o 



R 



G 



A 



N 



1 



C 



B 



O 



D 



I 



E 



S, 



171 



perfe6l Flora, for which purpofe, our opportunities of botanizing 



r" 



were greatly infafficient. On the contrary, I am rather inclined to 

 think, that our number might ahnofl: be doubled on a more accu- 

 rate fearch, which muft be the work of years, not of a few days, 

 as was the cafe with us. The greatefl expedations are from the 

 New-Hebrides, as they are large, uncultivated, but very fertile 



VEGE- 

 TABLE 

 KINGDOM 



1 



Hands. The jealous difpofition of their natives would not permit 

 us to make many difcoveries there ; yet, from the out-flcirts of the 

 country, we might form a judgment of the interior parts. As an 

 inilance, that we often have had indications of new plants, though 

 we could never meet with the plants themfelves, I fhall only men- 

 tion the wild nutmeg of the ifle of Tanna, of which we obtained 

 feveral fruits, without ever being able to find the tree. The firft 

 we met with was in the craw of a pigeon, which we had fhot, (of 

 that fort, which, according to Rumph'ius, diffeminates the true 

 nutmegs in the Eaft-India iflands) : it was ilill furrounded 



w 



membrane of bright red, which was its mace ; its color w%is the 



fame as tkat of the true nutmeg, but its fliape more oblon 



tafte was flrongly aromatic and pungent, but it had no fmell. The 



- 



natives afterwards brought us fome of them, Quiros muft have 

 meant this wild nut, when he enumerates nutmegs among the pro- 



I 



^uds of his Tierra del Efpiritu Santo. This circumftance gives a 

 /Irong proof (with many more of another nature) of the veracity of 



Z2 



a 



t> 



