94 PITCAIRN'S ISLAND. 
greatest length. The climate, which is just 
without the tropics, is adapted for the pro- 
duction of useful vegetables, which form the 
chief article of food : Irish and sweet pota- 
toes, yams, bread-fruit, a vegetable called 
taro (Arum esculentum), pumpkins, Indian 
maize, and beans. Here and there are patches 
of the tobacco-plant, and sugar-canes. The 
fruits are pines, plantains, and bananas, 
oranges, limes, melons, a species of apple, 
and cocoa-nuts. Among the trees are. the 
Cocoa-nut (Cocos nucifera); the Plantain 
(Musa paradisiaca) ; the Bread-fruit tree 
(Artocarpus mcisa); the Nono (Morinda 
citrifolia), &c. ; but the most striking and 
remarkable is the Banyan (Ficus Indica) : 
" The fig-tree ; not that kind for fruit renown'd, 
But such as at this day to India known, 
In Malabar or Deccan spreads her arms, 
Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 
The bended twig takes root, and daughters grow 
About the mother-tree, a pillar'd shade, 
High over-reach'd, and echoing walks between. 
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds 
At loop-holes cut through thickest shade." 
MILTON. 
The temperature of Pitcairn ranges from 
