550 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC 



point; but Mr. Holmes, whose observations as here quoted are from 

 Home's Year in Fiji, found that the mean relative humidity for 1875 

 at I P.M. was 63, which is certainly very low for the tropics. I may remark 

 that, as far as personal experience goes, the climate on the lee side of 

 Vanua Levu is much more enervating, much less healthy, and the air 

 is far more " drying " than on the side exposed to the trade-wind. 



Geological characters, as I found, explained nothing in this connection, 

 the " talasinga " vegetation sometimes occurring on basaltic areas, at other 

 times on the " soapstone " or calcareous mud-stone, and again on coarser 

 tufaceous rocks. In my volume on the geology of Vanua Levu (p. 57), it 

 is pointed out that the extensive disintegration of the basaltic rocks, that 

 are exposed on these plains in places, affords evidence of the great 

 antiquity of these "talasinga" districts in their present unforested condition. 

 The extent to which these rocks have weathered downward is remarkable. 

 In some places they are decomposed to a depth of ten feet and more. 

 The same inference is to be drawn from the occurrence of fragments 

 of limonite, or bog-iron ore, over these plains, marking as they do original 

 swampy tracts that, with a few exceptions, have long since disappeared. 

 Such deposits indicate that these plains have been for ages in the same 

 condition. ... It may be added that, according to Mr. Lister and 

 Mr. Crosby, the features of the "talasinga" plains occur in the Tongan 

 Group on the leeward sides of the islands of Eua and Vavau. 



NOTE 23 (page 43) 



Schimper's Grouping of the Indo-Malayan Strand-flora 



It is divided into four formations — the Mangrove, the Nipa, the 

 Barringtonia, and the Pes-capras. The two last make up my Beach-forma- 

 tion, the Barringtonia formation comprising the trees, shrubs, &c., 

 immediately lining the beach, and the Pes caprse including the creepers 

 and bushes of the beach itself. In the Pacific islands it is not always easy 

 to preserve this distinction. The Nipa formation corresponds in some 

 respects with my Intermediate or Transition formation, lying as it does 

 between the mangrove-belts and the woods of the interior ; but the swamp- 

 palm (Nipa fruticans) that forms it in the mass is not found in Fiji or, 

 indeed, in the Pacific islands, excepting the Solomon and Caroline Groups. 



NOTE 24 (page 44) 



Grouping of some of the Characteristic Plants of the 

 Strand-flora of Fiji 



(a) Beach-formation. — Calophyllum inophyllum, Thespesia populnea, 

 Triumfetta procumbens, Carapa moluccensis, Canavalia obtusifolia, Vigna 



