PLANT LIFE IN A TROPICAL ISLAND. 



5 



is neither round like an orange nor lemon-shaped; nor is the skin of 

 the colour or the texture of any other " citrus fruit " known to me. 

 It is very irregular in shape, has a thick skin, much hard and almost 

 woody white pulp, and little juice. It seems very unlikely that it is 

 an indigenous species, and is more probably a reversion towards an 

 original type of some form which has arisen by the natural crossing 

 of two or more introduced species. 



The fruit is rarely used — even, I think, by natives — though there is 

 a considerable demand, both by Europeans and natives, for citrus fruits 

 such as the ' Tahiti ' and Mandarin orange, the shaddock and the 

 lime, all of which grow more or less freely in Fiji, but under slightly 

 more domesticated circumstances. It should be added that the Fijians 

 themselves habitually speak of the shaddock as the " moli n'dina " or 

 true orange. " 



The wild guava of these "brakes," though of a good enough 

 variety, with a large and fairly luscious fruit, is little, if at all, used; 

 nor, as far as I know, is it or any form of Psidium cultivated in Fiji, 

 It seems almost as though the useful qualities of the guava were over- 

 looked owing to a sort of illogical resentment against the plant because 

 of the extraordinarily rapid spreading of the roots. Even small frag- 

 ments of roots grow vigorously when the parent plant is destroyed, 

 and even burning a guava scrub does not seem to kill it. There is no 

 known way of eradicating a brake of this plant but to fence it in, and 

 to keep a large number of goats in it till the unfortunate animals have 

 eaten the last leaf which appears. Moreover, if one man does succeed 

 in clearing his own land from guava, there is constant danger of new 

 invasion from adjacent lands, either by root growth or by bird-carried 

 seeds. 



The common Lantana of our gardens has spread over probably 

 every tropical area into which it has been introduced. But it is not 

 very difficult to eradicate, and it certainly does not impoverish the 

 land as does the guava. It is perhaps of horticultural interest that 

 the Lantana which occurs in Ceylon is almost always yellow -flowered, 

 with only an occasional pink, and very rarely a white, form ; but that 

 in Fiji its flowers are almost as varied in colour as are those bedded 

 out in gardens at home. It seems almost certain that it was first 

 introduced into Fiji as a garden plant and at a comparatively recent 

 date— i.e., after European horticulturists had guided it into a con- 

 siderable variety of colour. 



Another introduced plant very noticeable, not only along the road 

 we are travelhng, but in almost all parts of the island where the 

 clearing of the ground from its previous growth has given the new- 

 comer an opportunity of gaining a foothold, is Mikania amara, a weak- 

 stemmed, almost succulent looking South American creeper, of such 

 tremendously rapid growth, during its active season, as to have earned 

 for itself the popular name of " mile-a-minute. " An isolated plant 

 or two of this is pretty enough, by reason of its graceful habit, the 

 exceptionally brilhant green of its leaves, and the infinite number 



