On the Botany of Tahiti. Ixxi 



The young plants may be easily distinguished from the banana by their 

 pointed and wrinkled leaves, but the lai'ger ones only by the presence of black 

 patches on the stem, which are not always very apparent, or by cutting it 

 through, when it throws out a great quantity of deep purple juice. The 

 plant when well grown is as large as the largest size banana, and bears a 

 large upright scape of green flowers, about six under each bract or spathe, 

 which is also green. The fruit, which, even when ripe, is completely hidden 

 by the leaves, is of a dark orange-yellow colour, very closely crowded on the 

 scape, the whole i-aceme being of a somewhat conical form, from the lower 

 fruit being the largest. The eatable part is of a bright yellow colour, like 

 gamboge, and is hardly eatable in a raw state ; not being sweet it is a very 

 good vegetable when cooked ; or, when fully ripe, if well baked, it closely 

 resembles baked sweet apples. It has the curious property of colouring the 

 urine of a bright yellowish-green colour, which, however, does not continue ; 

 but although the same quantity of the fei may be eaten every day, after about 

 a week the original colour of the secretion will be restored. I am not aware that 

 it has any particular effect on the urinary organs, but the Eurojaeans in general 

 imagine that it has. The plant appeai\s difficult to cultivate at the sea level, 

 and I am afraid I shall not succeed in carrying any living ones even to New 

 South Wales. It does not in general bear seed ; I have once seen it, but the 

 seeds were abortive. Nevertheless, there is a plant in sparing cultivation at 

 Tahiti which is evidently a hybrid between the fei and the banana, producing 

 an enormous spike of fruit, which takes a horizontal direction. From the 

 circumstance of the fei not producing seed, I have been disposed to doubt its 

 being really indigenous to Tahiti ; I should like much to know if there are 

 any well-known instances of plants being barren in their true natural locality. 

 An indigenous banana in New Holland produces seed abundantly. 



The restrictions on personal liberty imposed by the French authorities at 

 Tahiti, in consequence of the war, are very vexatious. It is necessary to go 

 to the "Ministre des Affaires Europeennes" for a permission every time one 

 wishes to go outside the posts, which are, all but one, quite in the town. 

 I had a special permission to pass the more distant post whenever I pleased, 

 in order to go to a garden formed by Capt. Bonard, of the frigate " Ui^anie," 

 where I had planted a number of my plants. This permission was headed 

 ■" Permission jusqu 'a nouvel ordre"; nevertheless I was once turned back by 

 the sergeant of the guard, under the pretence that all permissions required to 

 be renewed each month, and mine was dated two months before. I was so 

 well known that I was generally suffered to pass without any interruption. 

 It was very little satisfaction to complain, and have the man reprimanded for 

 his stupidity ; and this led me into a rather amusing collision with the 

 sentries at another advanced post. A friend of mine, M. Eugene Vesco, a 



