VIEW OF A WOODY COEAL ISLAND, SEEN FROM WITHOUT. 37 



plant is seen on the right-hand side of the foreground ^11 Jp, and an older 



one more in the distance ^13 -^.* Close by will be noticed the delicate foliage 



of another shrub, peculiar to the outskirts of these forests, which, according to 

 Dr. Mertens, probably belongs to a new genus of Myrtacew ; an old fully grown 



specimen of it is seen in the foreground to the left ^2 | 3 ^ . In the outskirts 



of the forest at a distance are found, besides the exclusively littoral plants, other 

 half-shrubby trees. Two specimens of Pandanus odoratissimus, so common in all 

 these islands, will easily be recognised by their peculiar habit. Their trunks here 

 exhibit numerous crowns. On the right-hand side of the smaller specimen 

 to the left are seen, besides the low Sccevola and that undetermined Myr- 

 tacea, a species of Hibiscus with cordate leaves and dark carmine-coloured flowers, 



which either occurs as a shrub or small tree ^7 | 8 and above it a Calo- 



phyllum f (8 e) which in other places^becomes a stately forest tree, and has a dark 

 green foliage. Immediately behind it rises an isolated cocoa-palm, and more to 

 the right (12 n) a young specimen of Barringtonia speciosa, one of the most 

 elegant trees of this region, but which grows less freely in these coral islands. 

 Groups of cocoa-nut palms, which suffer little underwood to spring up, show 

 themselves here, and through these may be seen the other end of the forest, a 

 proof of the limited extent of such an island as this. In its centre, where the 

 accumulation of vegetable mould has been going on the longest, two stately forest 

 trees have already found a home. I only distinguished two species, which pro- 

 bably may be the most common and conspicuous. The first, a specimen of which 

 closes a group of trees, is a large Eugenia with lanceolate leaves, about nine 

 inches long, and fruits of about the size of a large plum, of a pale green colour 

 tinged with red, of a sweet, insipid, yet refreshing taste, and very much esteemed 

 by the natives. Several bread-fruit trees (Artocarpus incisa), of considerable 

 height, follow. Here may be found the true type of a tree in a state of cultivation 

 in most of the larger islands, all the fruits having fully developed seeds of the 

 size of chestnuts, and a similar skin. Roasted, they are eaten, possessing very much 

 the taste of chestnuts. There are besides several varieties of the bread-fruit, prin- 

 cipally distinguished by the shape of their leaves, as we shall have an opportunity 

 of learning on noticing the succeeding view. 



* Doubtless Tournefortia argcntca. — Berthold f Probably CalojphyUum inophyllum. — Berthold 

 Scemann. Scemann. 



D 3 



