310 
VEGETATION. 
watch the habits of many molluscous creatures, for 
my observatories were exposed to the rolling waves 
of the Pacific, and had not been disturbed, except 
by fishermen, for ages. The narrow beach was 
fringed by a low brushwood, in which the white, 
umbellate flowers of Crinum asiaticum were con- 
spicuous, while the interior of the islets was occupied 
by huge fig-trees (Ficus nitida), which, with firs and 
larches, form dark shady labyrinths, the chosen 
abode of Helix simodse and a little Bulimulus. 
The proliferous fronds of the handsome fern Wood- 
wardia japonica sjjrang in profusion from the humid 
soil, and the trunks of the Coniform were green with 
Drymoglossum, a curious fern with narrow fertile 
fronds growing erect from slender, twisted stems. 
Here, in the calm, warm days, came fishennen to haul 
the seine, and boatloads of women followed from the 
mainland to assist their husbands. The song and 
merry laughter of the women hauling at the rope, 
and the noise and splashing of the men in the 
water, mingled with the loud cawing of the rooks in 
the great fig-trees, produced on the mind a novel 
