AFRO-INDIAN REGIONS. 



329 



tops, nests of a Hamelbda^ an epidendric Melanthaceous plant, were 

 sometimes seen ; though far less frequent than the conspicuous nests 

 of the Polypodioid fern above mentioned. Other epidendric ferrs, 

 growing lower down on the branches and trunks of trees, were as 

 abundant and in greater variety than on the more Eastern Groups. 

 Epidendric Orchidacece, were also in greater variety ; the species 

 being more local, changing from Group to Group, more than in 

 other tribes of plants. Epidendric Li/copodiacece were abundant ; and 

 Peperomias, here and there present, though nowhere prominent. Of 

 other plants investing trunks of trees; two or more species of Pothos 

 were occasionally intermingled ; and more rarely, the Robiquetia, a 

 scandent Orchidaceous plant; while conspicuous above all the rest, 

 Freycinetias in the greatest profusion invested trunks, and ascended 

 beyond, high along the branches. 



Vines, though not so conspicuously abundant as in the Samoan 

 forest, were yet in great variety: including a Mucuna ; a climbing 

 Piper, nowhere very prominent in the forest ; one or two species of 

 Hoya, less abundant than at Samoa; some climbing Apocyiiacece ; a 

 scandent Ruhus, having the New Zealand habit ; two or more species of 

 Gissus ; two species of Jusminum ; a pinnate-leaved gen. Sapindoid ; 

 two or three species of Smilax, rather frequent ; three or more 

 scandent Morindns ; a white-berried Coffeaceous plant, with a long, 

 creeping stem, ascending and adhering to trunks of trees ; and 

 especially, a lofty-climbing Melastomaceons plant, putting forth from 

 the old wood large panicles of white, wax-like flowers. — Herbaceous 

 vines, as various Phaseolece, Convolouli, and Dioscoreas, were chiefly 

 confined to exposed situations ; to the border of the forest, and the 

 vicinity of the sea-shore. 



Palms were here and there met with in the forest; being more 

 frequent than on the Samoan Group, and in more variety ; but none 

 of the species lofty. Tree-ferns were by no means rare. 



The forest was full of a great variety of shrubs, many of them 

 arborescent : as a Dillenia, twenty feet high, conspicuous from its large 

 white flowers; a Qrewia, of equal dimensions, everywhere abundant; 

 pinnate-leaved Araliacece, and also digitate-leaved species; Urticeous 

 shi'bbs, some of them arborescent, but not so abundant as on Taheiti; 

 a profusion of Coffeacece, some of them rather showy, and including 

 several genera that were new to me ; a Leea, everywhere frequent, 

 having the character of an upright, rigid vine, four to ten feet high ; 



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