On the Botany of Tahiti. Ixvii 



six feet, with particularly soft wood. The wood is considerably softer than the 

 lower part of a cabbage stump, but it is nevertheless used by the natives for 

 canoes when they cannot get any better wood. Paritium tricuspis, Ximeria 

 elliptica, a Caj^i^aris with angular fruit, Ijiomcea pes-caprc^, and several others. 

 Convolvulus braziliensis, Agati coccinea, JErythrina inclica, Hernandia sonora, 

 Morinda citri/olia, Suriana maritima, Heliotro2nuni aromaticum, a Mucuna, 

 Sophora tomentosa, Ganavalia litforalis, with Barringtonia sjMciosa, very rare. 

 A little further from the sea will in some places be seen a considerable 

 variety of plants, the most conspicuous of which are Barringtonia, Terminalia 

 glahrata (very rare), Calophylluvi inophyllum in stony places, Ficus tinctoria 

 and 2y^olixa, Spondias dulcis, and Inocarpus edulis, mixed with great quantities 

 of Hibiscus tiliaceus and tricus2yis (Paritium), and more rarely Thespisia 

 populnea and Aluerites triloba. In some districts there are also found in this 

 region whole woods of the Ito, Casuarina equisetifolia. 



In the more cultivated parts of Tahiti all these plants have been nearly 

 exterminated, and their room is filled by the bread-fruit, cocoa-nut, and orange 

 trees, with an underwood composed entirely of the guava. This plant, which 

 has been introduced within the memory of man, is now the most common 

 plant and the most complete weed in the island. It covers the whole of the 

 low land, and also the hills to the height of about 500 feet, forming a dismal- 

 looking scrub of about ten feet high; above the height of 500 feet it has not yet 

 been able to contend successfully with the thick growth of fern and higher 

 still the native forest, but you see it springing up in every open spot in every 

 part of the island : never was there an instance of a plant so completely 

 taking possession of a country. Four other exotic plants are found among the 

 guavas — Cassia purpurea, Asdepias carassavica in moist sj)ots, an Indigofera 

 with long spikes of copper-coloured very small flowers, and a blue flowered 

 Indian Crotalaria, of which I forget the specific name ; this last is the only 

 one which accompanies the guava in its excursions up-hill. These four 

 plants form almost all the common weeds of waste places. The weeds of 

 cultivated soils are very few in number, and may likewise have been intro- 

 duced ; the most common are a Bcehmeria and a Phyllanthus. 



After passing the region of guavas the hills are generally entirely covered 

 with Gleichenia hermanni, growing on the steep sides so strongly that it is 

 almost impossible to pass through it. Occasionally interspersed are bushes of 

 Metrosideros villosa, and, as you get still higher, M. lucida (?) in much gi-eater 

 abundance. 



At about 800 to 1,000 feet the Gleichenia becomes almost lost in the scrub 

 of Metrosideros lucida, Dodoncea viscosa {?), Melastoma taitense, and a species of 

 Vaccinium which was called by Bertuo Arbutus mucronata. These plants are 

 bound together by two large species of Lycopodium, and underneath them are 



