PLANT LIFE IN A TKOPICAL ISLANDl 



7' 



Here we emerge for a moment from the thick httle beltt of" jiuaagk^ 

 through which we have just passed. We look eastward, d'own into'ths 

 valley of the delta of the Eewa, and northward, up the valUey of that 

 river. Our further way lies northward, and winds for many a; milb 

 through what looks like a very stormy sea of rocks and hil% andl 

 mountains, the surface of which seems broken up into a confusion^ off 

 long and jagged-edged mountain-waves, ill-defined by the intervening^ 

 trough-like valleys — the whole clothed in a wild tangle of vegetatiom ;; 

 and, furthest away, the greatest of the mountains, ' Mount Victoria, 

 jagged-edged, strangely like a long breaking roller, shuts off the 

 northern sea from our view. 



In that direction no sign of human life is visible, for the many native 

 towns which exist there are hidden down in the broad river valleys 

 But our bridle-track trends always to the north — ^through those valleys, 

 through many a gap in those hills, round many a shoulder of those 

 mountains — till it reaches the pass just below the highest point of 

 Mount Victoria. 



I wish I had time here to tell of the many plants cultivated by tke 

 natives living among the mountains, some for use and some for ormai- 

 raent. There is a strange story to be found out and told some dayr 

 —I confess I do not myself understand it at present — about the 

 garden varieties " of fruits, for use, and plants (forms of Dracaena,, 

 Croton, Pandanus, and Ooleus), w^hich these South Sea natives seenii 

 to have developed for their own use and pleasure, presumably by some' 

 process of "selection," intentional or unintentional, before contact 

 with folk from the West. But at present we must pursue our way 

 through the forest, without touching on native methods of gardening. 



The forest growth is probably hardly anywhere more than Iroimi BO 

 to 100 feet high, and is certainly generally considerably less. The 

 tallest and stateliest trees, scattered throughout the **bush," are 

 certainly " pines." These are not of the form familiar in our northerDi 

 regions, or even like the Araucarias of Norfolk Island, of New 

 Caledonia and the " Isle of Pines," and of some other more southerly^ 

 islands of these seas. The Fijian pine-trees (of at least four species)) 

 differ — of course, I am here speaking only of the difference most obvious; 

 to the passer-by — in the remarkable habit of growth of the huge andl 

 much-curved branches, rather as in an English oak than as in one of 

 our pines, and in the consequently oak-like outline of the whole 

 tree4op. 



One kind of these Fijian pines is closely allied botanically, and is 

 similar in useful qualities, to the well-known Kauri pine of New 

 Zealand. When it decays and falls, and its timber gets buried in the 

 soil, it leaves a fossil-gum in the earth. This used to be much 

 sought after by the natives, who at one time used to pay part of their 

 taxes in this substance, for it has a considerable commercial value in 

 the production of carriage and other varnishes. But the living tree also 

 produces, when cut, a milky-white resin, which burns readily. Very 

 often the traveller, in passing these trees, will notice great gaping 



