374 A MISSION TO VITI. 
In Wilkes’s ‘ Narrative of the United States Explor- 
ing Expedition, mention is made of a Caryota, as grow- 
ing in Fiji, and being used for rafters in building. “Its 
straight stem, with its durable, hard, and tough quali- 
ties, render it well adapted for this purpose.” No one 
has subsequently met with a true Caryota, one of the 
most remarkable genera: and I fancy that the botanists 
of Wilkes’s expedition may have mistaken the eroso- 
dentate leaves of a timber-yielding palm, probably Pty- 
chosperma Vitiensis, Wendl., abounding in some parts 
of Viti Levu, for those of a Caryota. It is about forty 
feet high, has a smooth trunk, pinnatifid leaves, and was 
seen by me at Nukubalavu. I have not been able to 
learn its native name. ‘Two other species, the sago and 
the cocoa-nut palm, already treated of above, and three 
discovered by the United States Exploring Expedition, 
augment the list of Fijian palms to ten. 
Ornamental plants are highly appreciated by both 
natives and white settlers, especially those having either 
variegated leaves or gay-coloured flowers, since the Fi- 
jian flora shares with that of most islands the peculiarity 
of possessing only a limited number of species display- 
ing gay tints. Those most frequently seen about the 
native houses are what gardeners call “leaf plants,” in- 
cluding the Danidani (Panax fruticosum, Linn.), with its 
deeply-cut foliage, several beautiful varieties of the 
Dracena ferrea, some of which have been introduced 
from various Polynesian islands, the Croton pictum, the 
indigenous Acalypha virgata, Forst., termed Kalabuci 
damu, the foliage of which changes from dark-green to 
brown, yellow and scarlet, and two kinds of ornamental 
