308 A MISSION TO VITI. 
Kitchen vegetables are supplied by a number of wild 
and cultivated plants. The natives boil the leaves of 
several ferns, among them those of the Litobrochia 
sinuata, Brack., and in times of scarcity those of the Ba- 
labala (Alsophila excelsa, R. Br.) ; those of the Ota (An- 
giopteris evecta, Hoffm.), a species with gigantic foliage, 
are peculiarly tender, and their taste not unlike that of 
spinach. The common brake (Pteris aquilina, Linn., 
var. esculenta, Hook. fil.), though plentiful, does not 
seem to be used as it is by the Polynesian tribes of New 
Zealand. The leaves of the Boro ni yaloka in gata (i. e. 
serpent’s-egg boro), our Solanum oleraceum, a spiny kind 
of herbaceous nightshade, serve as “ greens ” to both the 
natives and foreigners. The young shoots of the Vaulo 
of Viti Levu (Fagellaria indica, Linn.), known also, if I 
am not misinformed, by the names of Tui, Vico, Turuka, 
and Malava in different districts, after having been 
boiled, are eaten with taro and yams, but only by Fijians. 
Two kinds of purslane, termed “Taukuku ni vuaka” in 
Taviuni (Portulaca oleracea, Linn., et Portulaca quadri- 
jida, Linn.), are common weeds which, during my stay 
at Somosomo, were frequently brought to table. The 
natives sometimes grow whole fields of the Bete or Vau- 
vau ni Viti (Hibiscus [Abelmoschus| Manihot, Linn.), an 
erect shrub, attaining six or eight feet in height, bear- 
ing yellow flowers and lobed leaves, which, especially if 
not quite developed, are tender eating, relished even by 
Europeans. The Boro dina (Solanum anthropophagorum, 
Seem.), a straggling shrub with glabrous leaves and 
scarlet or yellow berries, possessing a faint aromatic 
smell, and resembling tomatos in shape, has also edible 
