NEW HEBRIDES AND LOYALTY ISLANDS. 5 
opportunities to scientific account, become attracted, during any of 
their searches for plants, mainly by the gracefulness or lovely 
delicacy of the ferns, which Nature, with a prodigious and marvellous 
lavishness, has strewed over these islands. Or the Searcher’s pre- 
dilections and exertions are limited to efforts of obtaining the more 
gorgeous forms of plants which present themselves to his view. Thus 
a modest herb, though of medicinal virtue—thus a plain-looking grass, 
though of nutritive importance—thus a concealed moss, though of 
microscopic beauty—or thus a delicate seaweed, though of charming 
structural perfection—are left alike unregarded. Need I speak of 
“blossoms at first sight unshowy, or of fruits perhaps still less attrac- 
tive, though the produce of trees both utilitarian and stately? to say 
nothing of the unwieldy flowers and bulky fruits of many a graceful 
palm, or of numerous succulents, ever so useful, but less readily 
amenable to any preparation for museum or study purposes. 
But since Divine wisdom has called forth all these vegetable be- 
ings by a godly design, to be subservient to our earthly wants, we ° 
ought to recognise it as a duty, while we wish to enjoy and utilise all 
these gifts of providence, to draw them also from thoughtless disregard 
and hidden obscurity into the cyclus of rational reflection, into the 
precincts of experimental tests, and into the reach of the full light of 
natural science. 
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0: 
PITTOSPOREAE. 
Pittosporum Campbellt. 
Arborescent ; leaves broadly lanceolate, thickly chartaceous, some- 
what acuminate, glabrous, like the peduncles verticillate crowded ; 
pedicels several or rather numerous, slightly downy ; calyces minute, 
almost bell-shaped, only to about one-third of their length cleft into 
five rounded teeth; corolla white, exceeding the calyx several times in 
length; petals narrow, cuneate—oblong, disconnected ; filaments 
somewhat dilated, twice as long as the slightly pointed anthers; style 
extremely short ; capsule bivalved, many-seeded ; valves thick, almost 
oval, narrowed at the extremities, especially at the summit; uneven 
yet not wrinkled on the outside; seeds dark—or blackish-brown, 
turgid, angular, wingless. 
Found on Tana, on wooded places. Seen about fifteen feet high. 
Leaves 3 to 5 inches long, 1 to 14 inches broad, paler beneath ; veins 
and lateral nerves exceedingly thin. Petioles 4 to 3 inch long. 
Primary. peduncles varying in length from } to 12 inches, terminal or 
