FIELDS OF MOUNTAIN TAItO. 223 
and gladdening the heart, of the industrious cul¬ 
tivator. 
Ponahohoa, the place we had visited, is situated 
in the district of Kapapala, in the north-east part 
of the division of Kali, and is, as near as we could 
judge, from ten to twelve miles from the sea-shore, 
and about twenty miles from the great volcano at 
the foot of Mouna Roa. 
The road by which we returned lay through a 
number of fields of mountain taro, which appears 
to be cultivated here more extensively than the 
sweet potato. 
On the edge of one of these fields we sat down 
in the grass to rest, beneath a clump of beautiful 
trees, the erythrina corollodendrum , a tree we 
frequently met with in the mountains, sometimes 
covered with beautiful flowers, and always afford¬ 
ing an agreeable shade. It is called by the natives 
oviriviri , or viriviri. Its branches are much used 
in erecting fences, on account of the readiness 
with which they take root when planted in the 
ground. The wood is also employed for making 
the carved stools placed under their canoes, when 
drawn on the beach, or laid up in their houses. 
The best kind of surf-boards are also made of this 
wood, which is lighter than any other the natives 
possess. 
On our way back, we also passed several hills, 
whose broad base and irregular tops shewed them 
originally to have been craters. They must be 
very ancient, as they were covered with shrubs 
and trees. From them must have come the then 
molten, but now indurated, flood over which we were 
travelling. Several small columns of smoke were 
seen rising near them, from fissures recently made. 
About two p. m. we reached our lodgings, and 
