CLIMATE, SOIL, AND FLORA. 279 
ferent kind of palms, Scitamineous plants, epiphytical 
orchids, ferns, and pepperworts, fully accounting for 
this fact. Whole districts, however, possess a strictly 
South Australian look, owing to the presence of two 
phyllodineous Acacias (A. laurifolia, Willd., and A. 
Richei, A. Gray), two Casuarinas, several kinds of Me- 
trosideros, with either scarlet or yellow blossoms, a 
climbing Rubus, Smilax, and Geitonoplesium* and Fla- 
gellaria, as well as the peculiar habit of various other 
species. There is little change in the nature of the 
vegetation until one reaches about 2000 feet elevation, 
where the plants peculiar to the coast region are re- 
placed by mountain forms. Hollies, Myrtaceous, Mela- 
stomaceous, and Laurinaceous trees, Epacridaceous and 
Vacciniaceous bushes, forming the bulk ; scarlet orchids, 
astelias, delicate ferns, mosses, and lichens, crowding 
their branches. None of the explored peaks have as 
yet disclosed any genuine alpine vegetation,—perennial 
herbs forming cespitose masses and prostrate shrubs, ge- 
nerally bearing large and gay-coloured flowers. Should 
it ever be met with, there would indeed be a rich bota- 
nical harvest. 
Nature has been truly bountiful in distributing her 
vegetable treasures to these islands; but perhaps the 
best proof of their extreme fertility and matchless re- 
sources is less furnished by the fact that a country with 
a population of at least 200,000 souls, constantly sup- 
plying provisions to foreign vessels, having an immense 
* The natives term this plant Wa Dakua, from Wa, creeper, and 
Dakua, Kowrie pine, because its leaves closely resemble those of the 
Fijian Dammara. 
