352 DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



(No. 4); a second species. Larger in all its parts; leaves narrow-obovate, elon- 

 gate ; calyx 4-fid ; distinct petals. " Ovolau," Brackenridge. 



(No. 5); yet larger in all its parts. A tree, "thirty feet high leaves nine inches 



by four, pellucidly-punctate. " Ovolau, at the elevation of fifteen hundred feet," 

 Brackenridge. 



Metrosideros (No. 3) ; compare (No. 2) Samoa. Mountain-summits on Ovolau, at the ele- 

 vation of two thousand feet. 



; perhaps the same species; leaves smooth, the upper surface shining, the under 



surface dull. A small tree, fifteen to twenty feet high, frequent on the barren upland 

 at Naloa and around Mbua Bay, growing not more than a hundred feet above the level 

 of the sea. 



Gen. Myrtac. ? (compare No. 1 Tongatabu ?). A "tree, forty feet high;" habit of 

 Clusia ; the leaves large, thick, elliptical, with minute reticulations having a black dot 

 in the centre; no flowers nor fruit. " Nemena or Direction Island," Brackenridge. 



Barringtonia speciosa, (bis No. 1 Metia to Samoa). Submaritime, and not very frequent. 

 Young stocks often seen surrounded by stakes, for their preservation ; the fruit, when 

 dry, being used by the natives for seine-corks. 



acutangula ? (No. 3) ; a third species. A tree, forty feet high ; the leaves alternate, 



sessile, serrulate, mucronate ; racemes two to three feet long ; petals white ; stamens 

 pink, or rose-colored; fruit acute-angled. Ovolau; and in the low, submaritime grove 

 opposite Rewa. 



Gen. near Myrtac? (No. 1); compare Hypericac. ?, as the flowers yellow, and stamens. 

 "A slender tree, twenty feet high;" leaves sessile, penninerved, and pellucidly-punctate ; 

 long, slender, few-flowered panicles of large flowers; calyx 4-fid; petals and stamens 

 yellow. Ovolau. 



Cucumis?; bis (No. 2) Tongatabu; leaves with about five lobes; flowers yellow. On the 



low coral-islet of Nukulau ; and on the North side of Viti-levu. 

 (No. 3) ; the fruit pubescent, and rounder than in the Taheitian sp. Growing 



at Mba; and around the town of Muthuata. 

 Gen. Cucurbitac. ; bis, (compare Samoa); leaves with five acute lobes; fruit small, 



smooth, and oblong ; flowers minute. Muthuata. 

 (Luffa, bis No. 1 Samoa); leaves five-lobed, angulato-dentate; flowers yellow; interior 



of the fruit fibrous. Muthuata. 

 Passiflora (No. 1); leaves trilobed. Ovolau, and elsewhere. 



Portulaca nov. sp., (No. 5). Large and upright ; the leaves cuneate ; flowers half an 

 inch in diameter. "Nemena or Direction Island," Brackenridge. 



Nov. gen. Cunoniac, (No. 1). An ornamental tree, thirty to forty feet high, with the 

 trunk two feet in diameter; leaves opposite, ternate, entire; flowers red, chiefly arising 



Hedyotis paniculata; bis (No. 1 Samoa to Tongatabu). Ovolau, the North coast of Viti- 

 levu, and elsewhere. 



Ageratum (conyzoides ?, compare No. 1 Brazil and the Peruvian Mountain-region); leaves 

 hairy. Abundant everywhere; growing as if at home in the marshes around Mbua Bay. 



(Adenostemma viscosum, No. 1, compare Taheiti to Samoa). Ovolau, and elsewhere; 

 rather rare. — Apparently the same species, with lax inflorescence, in the marshes 

 around Mbua Bay. 



