AFRO-INDIAN REGIONS. 



335 



reduced to the mangroves growing within the tidal overflow ; but in 

 ravines, the woods extended inland, far less luxuriant than on the 

 Windward coast, but containing kinds of trees not previously met with : 

 as a second species (jen. Inga-lihe ; a thick-stemmed, Urticeoiis tree; 

 an opposite-leaved gen. Crofon-Uke, hardly more than an arborescent 

 shrub; a Sapindus ? ; and other trees more rare and local, to be men- 

 tioned presently: vines also, tangling together the trunks and branches, 

 w^ere not altogether wanting. Steep, broken declivities on the distant 

 mountains were observed to be covered with forest growth ; together 

 with the mountain-tops, enveloped often in clouds, and receiving 

 more than the usual proportion of moisture. 



On the 3d, I Innded with others, on a comparatively low islet, 

 projecting into the channel betw^een the two main islands, and mark- 

 ing the crossing-place. With some of our party, I walk.ed along the 

 beach nearly two miles, to some cocoa-pahns ; and at two difl'erent 

 jjoints, penetrated a short distance inland; among deserted plantations 

 overgrown with CenclLvus, or bur-grass, and presenting scarcely any 

 indigenous plants : indeed, among twenty-eight species of plants met 

 with on this excursion, the list does not contain a single one worthy 

 of special notice. 



On the 5th, the Peacock crossed over to Vanua-levu, the Second 

 main island ; and entered Mbua Bat, often called Sandal-wood Bay. 

 In the course of various excursions on shore, I found the country 

 back of Vaturua, the Middle village, for some miles chietly devoid of 

 trees, gently-undulating, grassy, and somewhat monotonous. A re- 

 markable gen. Casuarinoid occurred only here, its naked trunk and 

 branches terminating in an umbrella crown, that in various directions 

 overtopped the surrounding trees ; and with a frequent, willow-like 

 Acacia, a Metrosideros, beds of Gleichenia and Pteris, an Epacrideovs 

 shrub, and the normal Casuarina eqidsetifoUa, contributed more of an 

 Australian aspect than we observed elsewhere in the group. A small, 

 Symplocos-Uke tree was however frequent in the open ground ; alter- 

 nating with scattered shrubs, more or less arborescent ; as a Maha, 

 an ornamental, red-flowered Weinmannia, a gen. Ceanothoid, a Com- 

 merson/ia, some M/jrtacece, and other shrubs, in general becoming more 

 frequent around the patches of woods; while in the midst of the 

 woods, the FlagelJaria was unusually abundant, its large panicles of 

 white flowers conspicuously hanging in the tree-tops. — Much marshy 

 ground occurs in the same vicinity ; presenting in general the same 



