62 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
in the centre of the crown or tuft of leaves at the 
top. In several of these islands, the fei is the 
principal support of the inhabitants. The plantain 
is a fruit that is always acceptable, and resembles 
in flavour a soft, sweet, but not juicy pear; it 
is very good in milk, also in puddings and pies, 
and, when fermented, makes excellent vinegar. 
The vi 9 or Brazilian plum, a variety of spondias, 
(spondias dulcis of Parkinson,) is an abundant 
and excellent fruit, of an oval or oblong shape, 
and bright yellow colour. In form and taste it 
somewhat resembles a magnum-bonum plum, but 
it is larger, and, instead of a stone, has a hard 
and spiked core, containing a number of seeds. 
The tree on which it grows is deciduous, and one 
of the largest found in the islands, the trunk being 
frequently four or five feet in diameter. The bark 
is gray and smooth, the leaf pinnate, of a light 
green colour; the fruit hangs in bunches, and is 
often so plentiful, that the ground underneath the 
trees is covered with ripe fruit, while the satisfied, 
and almost surfeited pigs, lie sleeping round its 
roots. 
The ahia, or jambo, engenia Mallaccensis , is 
perhaps the most juicy of the indigenous fruits of 
the Society Islands. It resembles, in shape, a 
small oblong apple, is of a bright beautiful red 
colour, and has a white, juicy, but rather insipid 
pulp. Though grateful in a warm climate like 
Tahiti, its flavour is by no means so good as that 
of the ahia growing on the Sandwich Islands. Like 
the vi, it bears but one crop in the year, and does 
not continue in season longer than two or three 
months. Both these trees are propagated by seed. 
In certain seasons of the year, if the bread-fruit 
be scarce, the natives supply the deficiency thus 
