THE PLANTATIONS. 
61 
and Harwood visited the high, and cultivated 
parts of the district. After travelling over the 
lava for about a mile, the hollows in the rocks 
began to be filled with a light brown soil; and, 
about half a mile further, the surface was entirely 
covered with a rich mould, formed by decayed 
vegetable matter and decomposed lava. Here 
they enjoyed the agreeable shade of bread-fruit 
and ohia trees : the latter is a deciduous plant, a 
variety of eugenia, resembling the eugenia ma 
laccensis, bearing a beautifully red pulpy fruit, 
of the size and consistence of an apple, juicy but 
rather insipid. The trees are elegant in form, 
and grow to the height of twenty or thirty feet; 
the leaf is oblong and pointed, and the flowers are 
attached to the branches by a short stem. The 
fruit, which is abundant, is generally ripe, either on 
different places in the same island, or on different 
islands, during all the summer months. The 
path now lay through a beautiful part of the 
country, quite a garden, compared with that 
through which they had passed on first leaving 
the shore. It was generally divided into small 
fields, about fifteen rods square, fenced with low 
stone walls, built with fragments of lava gathered 
from the surface of the enclosures. These fields 
were planted with bananas, sweet potatoes, moun¬ 
tain taro, paper mulberry plants, melons, and 
sugar-cane, which flourished luxuriantly in every 
direction. Having travelled about three or four 
miles through this delightful region, and passed 
several valuable pools of fresh water, they arrived 
at the thick woods, which extend several miles up 
the sides of the lofty mountain that rises imme¬ 
diately behind Kairua. Among the various plants 
and trees that now presented themselves, they 
