DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



with unarmed branches, and axillary, prickly branchlets; but the 

 neighborhood was considered unsafe, and we did not stray far inland. 



On the 1st of June, I landed with others at Tubuai ; on a penin- 

 sular islet, connected with the main land by a shelf of coral. On 

 our way to the summit, four or five hundred feet in elevation, we 

 passed among bushes with some trees intermingled, and also over 

 open ground ; remaining more than four hours on shore. 



On the 2d, I landed with others on Malaki ; an islet, seven or eight 

 hundred feet in elevation, and nearly opposite to the town of Raki- 

 Raki. The surface was chiefly unwooded and covered with grasses ; 

 but shrubs and small trees occurred along the banks of some dried- 

 up water-courses. Not far from the beach, stood another large tree 

 of the submaritime species of i^'/cus, first seen by myself on Tongatabu. 



Throughout the Leeward portion of the group, tlie country continued 

 chiefly unwooded, but by no means so barren as was supposed in the 

 distance; being distinctly green, covered with grasses, and much re- 

 minding me of the aspect of the Cape Verd Islands. The grasses, 

 very generally in tufts more or less scattered, consisted chiefly of 

 Andropogou, Cymhopogon, Paspalum, Heteropogon, and Digitaria; asso- 

 ciated in somewhat moister situations, with frequent tufts of Scle- 

 ria. Certain trailing plants were sometimes intermingled, as a Plum- 

 hago, a geit. Ri.vinoid, and in one instance an Evolvalus ; also small 

 ferns, as two species of Clieilanthes rather frequent ; while of suf- 

 fruticose plants, the Waltheria seemed entirely at home ; the Vitex, 

 too, extended far inland, but in the open country assuming a 

 dwarfed form, simple-leaved, and hardly recognizable. Lastly, some 

 real shrubs extended into and grew chiefly in the open country, 

 scattered and more or less isolated : as the Prernna, rather frequent ; 

 ?i PJiyllanthus, \hvee to five feet high; a white-flowered Sesbania ; a 

 gen. Elatostemokl ; a (jreiown, extremely frequent; a yellow-flowered 

 gen. Tiliac, also frequent; a Hiptage? ; and various undetermined 

 kinds of shrubs. Throughout the whole of the unwooded country, 

 stocks of the Pandanus were conspicuous in the distance, growing 

 singly at short intervals ; but whether planted or truly indigenous, 

 I was never able to determine. Far inland on the mountain-slopes, 

 much of the surface was observed to be of a pale-green color; due to 

 extensive tracts of dwarf, slender-stemmed sugar-cane, readily mis- 

 taken for beds of reeds. 



The slight line of forest along the sea-coast, was in many places 



