444 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
possess of the group. The islands are nearly everywhere 
covered with fine forests, the vegetation being described 
as unusually luxuriant and beautiful, even as compared 
with the other islands of the Pacific. The forest-trees 
are magnificent, and tree-ferns of 30 or 40 feet high 
abound. Besides sandal-wood, ebony and lignum-vitse 
grow, and from the fruit of Parinarium laurinum , one of 
the Chrysobalaneae, a resin is obtained which is everywhere 
used for the caulking of canoes. Thirteen palms are 
known, of which no less than six are Arecas. The 
Banyans are equally well represented. The islands form 
the limit of many of the peculiar animal forms of New 
Guinea. Mammals are few. The common Cuscus is the 
only marsupial, but there are seventeen bats, of which six 
are peculiar to the group. There are four indigenous rats, 
of wdiich two discovered by Mr. Woodford are of extra¬ 
ordinary size, being nearly two feet in length. In the 
avifauna the paradise-birds are wanting, but many dis¬ 
tinctly Moluccan and Papuan genera occur, such as Lorius , 
Nasiterna , Geoffroyus , and Eos among the parrots, JDicceum , 
Graucalus , Centropus , Mctcropygia , and others. Of seven¬ 
teen species of lizards, seven are peculiar to the group, 
and five of eleven snakes ; but this individuality is perhaps 
best exhibited in the frogs, of which of thirteen species 
no less than eleven are peculiar. Among them is the 
enormous Ectna guppyi , which attains a weight of between 
2 and 3 lbs.; and the group is otherwise remarkable as 
affording a new family—the Ceratobatrachidae—peculiar 
in having both jaws toothed. Such distinct forms prove 
the insularity of the Solomons to have been established 
at a very remote period. 
The natives of the Solomon Islands exhibit consider¬ 
able variation both in physical characteristics and customs, 
the people of Bougainville Island, for example, differing 
