PLANT LIFE IN A TROPICAL ISLAND. 



3 



so abundantly that, to anyone standing in the early morning under one 

 of these trees, the effect is as of a shower of rain. 



The other tree which will certainly attract the stranger in Suva is 

 the ivi, or native chestnut {hiocarpus edulis Forst). A group of gnarled 

 and evidently very old ivi trees occupies the greater part of the 

 swampy paddock which lies between the sea and the hill on which 

 Government House stands. The large roots writhe like great snakes 

 over the ground; and from these roots rise the great buttressed trunks 

 which carry the few twisted giant trunk branches. These magnificent 

 old trees are splendidly beautiful in themselves, and should interest the 

 plant -loving traveller in that each of their branches is in itself a 

 wonderful garden of interlacing orchids, ferns, Hoy as, and other plants 

 in almost incredible variety. The Fijians formerly made much use 

 of the fruit and timber of the tree, and planted it about their houses. 

 The particular clump of which I have been speaking marks the site 

 where the native town of Suva stood till, in 1882, the Fijian inhabi- 

 tants were bought out and induced to remove to the other side of the 

 bay, in order to make room for the modern town of Suva, the capital 

 of the Colony. 



I must not detain you further in Suva, but instead will take you 

 across the island for about 130 miles, chiefly along bridle tracks, up 

 into the northern mountains, across almost their highest summit, 

 and then down again to the sea. But the traveller should not start 

 on his journey without fair warning that many of the plants which 

 will attract his attention are not really natives of the island. Many now 

 seemingly thoroughly naturalized plants came of themselves, water- 

 borne or wind-borne, others were doubtless introduced long ago by the 

 natives, either for use or ornament ; for, strangely enough, these wild- 

 men " are great decorative gardeners; other plants, again, have been 

 introduced, intentionally or otherwise, by Europeans, chiefly within 

 the century and a-half since Captain Cook's time. 



But it is full time to start on our journey; and we will do so by 

 continuing along the road from^ the Suva landing stage, between the 

 rain-trees and the ivis, along the edge of the sea, and then cut across 

 the south-east corner of the island, till we come out on the Eewa 

 Eiver, some 20 miles up its course. 



At the edge of the sea one passes at first chiefly through swampy 

 land, among great mangrove trees, the roots of which are occasionally 

 reached by high tides. In other places, where the soil is a few inches 

 higher, and therefore drier, and where only the very exceptionally high 

 tides, driven in by the wind, sometimes reach, there for a few hours to 

 hold back the fresh water from inland, the vegetation is more varied. 

 Here it consists of a few old and gnarled-looking trees, of no great 

 height, almost smothered in too rampant bushes, which in turn are 

 almost buried in coarse growing creepers and in giant grasses. 



In these drier places the most noticeable trees are two very different 

 looking species of Barringtonia {B. speciosa and B. edulis), one a great, 

 strong-looking tree with large dark-green shining leaves, huge tassel- 



B 2 



