292 A MISSION TO VITI. 
The Sogo grows in swamps, and the natives occasion- 
ally take advantage of the open places among the groves 
to plant taro, or even clear Sogo land for that purpose. 
The dimensions of the finest specimens were accurately 
measured. The largest trees felled were from forty to 
fifty feet high, and their trunks, in the thickest parts, 
from three feet nine inches to four feet four inches in 
circumference. The trunk is very straight, and densely 
covered with aerial roots, six to twelve lines long, all 
having the peculiarity of being directed upwards. The 
crown generally consists of about sixteen living leaves 
in all stages of development, and there are mostly five 
or six dead ones still adhering to it. The pinnatifid 
leaves are of adark green, seventeen feet long; whilst 
the leaflets, gracefully drooping at the tips, are from 
three and a half to four feet long, and three and a half 
inches broad. The petiole is covered with spines, which 
at its base are arranged in connected rows extending 
from side to side, and towards the top in horse-shoe- 
shaped collections. The spines are brown, and from one 
and a half to two and a half inches long. When the 
tree has attained maturity there appears a terminal pa- 
nicle about twelve feet high, and divided into twenty 
or more branches. These branches measure eight feet 
in length, and are again divided into about fourteen 
branchlets (each averaging from fourteen to sixteen 
inches). The fruit, in outer appearance resembling an 
inverted pine-cone, is beautifully polished and of a 
yellowish brown, much lighter than that of Sagus Rum- 
phii, Mart. This palm forms a prominent feature in the 
landscape, the foliage fluttering like gigantic plumes in 
