50 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
There is a very large and beautiful species of 
fern, called by the natives nahe; the leaves of 
which are fragrant, and, in seasons of scarcity, the 
large tuberous kind of root is baked and eaten. 
It is insipid, affords but little nutriment, and is 
only resorted to when other supplies fail. It is 
altogether a different plant from the fern, the 
root of which is eaten by the natives of New 
Zealand. The berries, or apples, of the nono, mo- 
rindo citrifolia , and the stalks of the pohue, con¬ 
volvulus Brasiliensis , are also eaten in times of 
famine. 
The fruits of the islands are not so numerous as 
in some continental countries of similar tem¬ 
perature, but they are valuable ; and, next to the 
bread-fruit, the haari , or cocoa-nut, coccos nuci- 
fera , 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 forms 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 taper¬ 
ing 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 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 
