280 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



very scarce and " out of season there ;" but after only eleven days, 

 proved abundant at tlie Samoan Islands, where " the bread-fruit sea- 

 son had commenced something similar was remarked by others 

 respecting the vi-plum (Spondias), but with me this fruit was rare; 

 the Inocarpus, too, was in flower, whereas no signs of flowers could be 

 discovered at Taheiti. 



The general vegetable growth. With the exception of the 

 " savannas" or natural openings, said to occur on Upolu, these islands, 

 from the mountain-tops to the sea, were covered originally with a dense 

 forest of large trees; and such is the universal luxuriance, that much 

 of the original forest-aspect continues throughout the clearings; all of 

 them more or less neglected. 



Manua, Tutuila, and Upolu, consisting of mountain-ridges rising 

 directly out of the sea, present differences in soil and exposure ; and 

 are more favorable to variety in productions than Savaii. With more 

 sunlight, there was a more frequent evolution of flowers : the climbing 

 Freycinetia, everywhere abundant, presented no signs of flowering on 

 Savaii; while on Tutuila, its ornamental, orange-colored floral-leaves 

 were in all directions conspicuous ; epidericlric Orchidacece being at the 

 same time more various and abundant. 



Of large and medium-sized trees : Barringtonia speciosa, CahphyJ- 

 lum inophylhnn, and here first making their appearance Thespesia 

 popidnea and Hernandia sonora, were all submaritime and confined to 

 the sea-shore. — Of species growing inland on Manua, Tutuila, Upolu, 

 and in the marginal district of Savaii, the following may be enume- 

 rated as frequent : LiocarpKs edidis, of large dimensions, and perhaps 

 the most abundant tree, but not extending far from the sea; Klein- 

 Jiovia, fifty to seventy feet high, with the trunk rather straight, and 

 Tilia-like foliage, especially frequent on Upolu ; gen. Tiliac, similar in 

 habit, but usually of smaller dimensions; various medium-sized species 

 of Ficus, the lofty false " banyan-tree" being rare ; gen. Geoffrceoid ? 

 a medium-sized tree, with simple leaves resembling those of Inocarpus; 

 gen. Terehirdhac.?, a large tree, with long, pinnate, and softly-pubescent 

 leaves; a pinnate-leaved gen. Terehinth.?, with ferruginous scurfy twigs; 

 a Rhus, in certain situations frequent, and often forty feet high ; a 

 gen. incert. with pinnate, pubescent stipuled leaves; and a pinnate- 

 leaved Sapindoid, seen by Mr. Brackenridge "forty feet" high. 



Of true parasitic p)lants, coming out of the branches of trees, I met 

 with only a species of Loranthus; remarkable for having stems and 



