364 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
Zealand. The berries^ or apples^ of the nono^ morindo 
citrifoliay and the stalks of the pohue, convolvulus Bra- 
siliensis, are also eaten in times of famine. 
The fruits of the islands are not so numerous as in 
some continental countries of similar temperature, but 
they are valuable 5 and, next to the bread-fruit, the haari^ 
or cocoa-nut, coccos nucifera^ is the most serviceable. The 
tree on which it grows is also one of the most useful 
and ornamental in the islands, imparting to the land¬ 
scape, in which it fails not to form a conspicuous object, 
all the richness and elegance of intertropical verdure. 
The stem is perfectly cylindrical, three or four feet in 
diameter at the root, very gradually tapering to the top, 
where it is probably not more than eighteen inches 
round. It is one single stem from the root to the 
crown, composed apparently of a vast number of small 
hollow reeds, united by a kind of resinous pith, and 
enclosed in a rough, brittle, and exceedingly hard kind 
of bark. The stem is without branch or leaf, excepting 
at the top, where a beautiful crown or tuft of long green 
leaves appears like a graceful plume waving in the 
fitful breeze, or nodding over the spreading wood, or the 
humble shrubbery. The nut begins to grow in a few 
months after it is planted; in about five or six years, 
the stem is seven or eight feet high, and the tree 
begins to bear. It continues to grow and bear fifty 
or sixty years, or perhaps longer, as there are many 
groves of trees, apparently in their highest perfection, 
which were planted by Pomare nearly forty years ago. 
While the plants are young, they require fencing, in 
order to protect them from the pigs; but after the crown 
has reached a few feet above the ground, the plants re¬ 
quire no further care. 
