304 



TERNATE. 



[chap. XXI. 



but characteristic flavour, which, like that ol good bread 

 and potatoes, one never gets tired of. The reason why it ia 

 comparatively scarce is, that it is a fruit of which tlie seeds 

 are entirely aborted by cidtivation, and the tree can there- 

 fore only be propagated by cuttings. The seed-bearing 

 variety is common all over the tropics, and though the 

 seeds are verj^ good eating, resembling chestnuts, the fruit 

 is quit^j worthieiss as a vegetable. Now that steam and 

 Ward's cases render the transport of young plants so easy, 

 it is much to be \nshed that tbe best varieties of this 

 unequalled vegetable should be introduced into ovu: West 

 India islands, and largely propagated there. As the fruit 

 ^vill keep some time after being gathered, we miglit then 

 be able to obtaiii this tropical luxury in Covent Garden 

 Market. 



Although the few months I at various times spent in 

 Amboyna were not altogether verj^ profitable to me in the 

 way of collections, yet it wUl always remain as a bright 

 spot in the review of my Eastern travels, since it was there 

 that I fii'st made the acquaintance of those glorious birds 

 and insects, which render the Moluccas classic ground in 

 the eyes of the naturalist, and characterise its fauna as 

 one of the most remarkable and beautiftd upon the globe. 

 On the 20th of February I finally quitted Amboyna for 

 Ceram and Waigiou, leaving Charles Allen to go by a 

 Government boat to Wahai on the north coast of Ceram, 

 and thence to the unejiplored island of MysoL 



CHAPTER XXL 



TEIE MOLirCCAS — TEEKATE. 



ON the morning of the 8th of January, 1858, 1 aiTived at 

 Temate, the fourth of a tow of fine conical volcanic 

 islands which skirt the west coast of the large and almost 

 unknown island of Gilolo. The largest and most perfectly 

 conical mountain is Tidore, which is over four thousand 



