482 FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA. 



"The whole surface of these flat coral islands is like the clean white 

 sanded floor of an old English kitchen. The cocoanut tree springs up 

 eveiywhere, but in the spots where yams and taros are grown the sand 

 is hollowed out and a pit formed, from 100 to 200 yards long and of 

 varying width, into which decaying cocoanut leaves and refuse are 

 thrown till a rich soil is formed. '"^ 



"The position occupied by the Polynesian races as tillers of the soil 

 has hardly had sufficient attention given to it, although it may be 

 doubted whether anj^ people ignorant of the uses of the metals ever 

 advanced so far as they have done. * * * Let any one read the 

 account given bj^ the first visitors to New Zealand — especially Cook — 

 respecting the Maoi'i cultivations of those days — the care that was 

 taken to keep them free from weeds; the labor expended in convey- 

 ing gravel to hill up the kumara plantations; the trouble taken to 

 protect them from the strong winds by means of temporary- screens 

 or fences; the months employed in building houses (often highly 

 carved and decorated) in which to store their crops; the amount of 

 patient care and selection required in raising new varieties."* 



The agricultural achievements of the Polynesians become even more 

 impressive when we reflect that so man3^ of their cultivated species 

 were not propagated from seeds but from cuttings. These must have 

 been carefully packed, kept moist with fresh water, and protected 

 against the salt spray, to survive the long voyages in open canoes. 

 A list of 24 species of plants believed to have been brought to the 

 Hawaiian Islands by prehistoric colonists is given by Hillebrand.<^ 

 This number, however, must be greatly increased, since there were 

 many varieties of the sweet potato, taro, sugar cane, and banana. 

 Moreover, the Hawaiian group is scarcely more than subtropical in 

 climate, and lacks numerous seedless sorts of the breadfruit, yam, taro, 

 and other plants of the equatorial belt of islands, so that a complete 

 enumeration of the species and \'arieties carried about by the early 

 Polynesians among the islands of the Pacific would include nearly 100. 



There are many indications to be drawn from the people themselves, 

 as well as from the abundance of ancient ruins, that the archipelagoes 



« Moresby, Discoveries and Surveys of New Guinea, p. 73, London, 1876. The vol- 

 canic islands of Polynesia have, of course, rich soil, but they shared the deficiency 

 of native foncl plants, so that nonauriculturul people could scarcely have secured a 

 permanent food supply. 



It is certain, moreover, that among the Polynesians the cocoanut is a cultivated 

 plant no less than the yam, taro, sweet potato, sugar cane, banana, breadfruit, and 

 numerous other species found in use throughout the tropical islands of the Pacific. 

 An especial interest attaches to the cocoanut in that there are adequate botanical 

 reasons for believing that it originated in America, the home of all related palms. 

 See Tlu' Origin and I>istribution of the Cocoa Palm, Contributions from the U. S. 

 National Herbarium, \'ol. ^'II, No. L', Washington, 19t)l. 



''t'lu'esenuiii, Trans, New Zealand Inst., oSiSOy-IW.'^. ItlOl. 



c Floni (if tlie Hawaiian Islands, hitrod., )i. xvi, ISSS, 



