292 THE OCEAN. 
rolling through the channel, on the one side, or the 
foaming billows dashing, and roaring, and breaking 
over the reef on the other, they appear like emerald 
gems of the Ocean, contrasting their solitude and 
verdant beauty with the agitated element sporting in 
grandeur around.” 
Upon the mind of a European, the sailing in a 
small vessel through one of these sheltered lagoons 
has a most novel and interesting effect. The shore, 
on the one hand, presenting its shifting aspects 
of beauty, as the boat skims past, the convol- 
vulus and other brilliant creeping plants entwined 
about the dark rocks, or trailing in unrestrained 
wildness over the sands; the solemn groves, now 
revealing their sombre and shady retreats, now pro- 
jecting their massy foliage in full sun-light; the 
valuable bread-fruit (Artocarpus), the light and 
elegant aito (Casuarina), the magnificent tamanu 
(Callophylium), with its glossy evergreen leaves, the 
hutu (Barringionia) of giant height, adorned with 
large flowers of white and pink, are relieved by the 
coral-tree (Hrythrina), with its light-green waving 
leaves and bunches of scarlet blossoms, and the 
hoary foliage of the candle-nut (Alurites), The 
cocoa-nut, always beautiful, whether growing alone 
or in groves, but particularly pleasing when seen 
planted around a neat white-washed cottage, in 
company with the broad-leaved plantain or banana; 
the-light tree-ferns displaying their elegant tracery 
against the sky, the native chestnut (Zuscarpus), 
rearing its stately head above its fellows, and mark- 
ing the position of a running stream;—these and 
