446 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
bers as a necessary appendage to their habitation. 
The natives display a taste for the beautiful, in their 
fondness of flowers. The gardenia, hibiscus, and 
amaranthus, were often woven in most graceful 
wreaths or garlands, and worn on their brows. They 
were delighted when the helianthus was added to 
their flowers. The king and queen passed by my 
garden when the first ever grown in the islands was 
in flower, and came in, to admire its size and bril¬ 
liant colours. Soon after their return, I received a 
note from the king, asking for a flower for the queen, 
and also one for her sister; I sent them each a small 
one; and the next time they appeared in public, the 
large sunflowers were fixed as ornaments in their hair. 
A stream rolled at the bottom of a steep bank, about 
twenty yards from our houses. Two or three aged and 
stately chestnut-trees growing on the margin of this 
bank, extended their branches over the stream and the 
bank, casting around a grateful and an inviting shelter 
from the noontide sun. 
Immediately behind this spot, Matoereere^ black rock, 
the loftiest mountain in the island, towered in majesty 
above the surrounding hills. The lower part of the moun¬ 
tain appears basaltic; the central strata are composed 
of a vesicular kind of volcanic rock, while the upper 
parts are a large kind of breccia. It is verdant to its 
summit, which is of a beautiful conic shape, sup¬ 
ported by a perpendicular rock. The inferior hills, on 
one side, were not only verdant, but to a considerable 
extent clothed with shrubs or trees, while a degree of 
sterile whiteness marked the basaltic and volcanic rocks 
on the other. These gave a richness and picturesque 
appearance to the landscape, which was greatly height- 
