80 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES* 
CHAP. II. 
Vegetable productions of the Islands—Forests—Various 
kinds of timber—The Apape and faifai—The aito, or 
casuarina—Tiairi, candlenut tree—Callophylla Bar- 
ringtonia— Thespesia populnea— Erythrina— Hibiscus 
—The auti, or cloth plant—Description, uses, and 
legends of the sacred aoa—Account of the bread-fruit 
tree and fruit—Various methods of preparing the fruit 
—Arum or taro, uhi or yam—U-ma-ra, or sweet 
potato—Culture, preparation, and method of dressing 
the arrow-root—Appearance and value of the cocoa- 
nut tree—Several stages of growth in which the fruit is 
used—Manufacture of cocoa-nut oil. 
The warmth of a tropical climate, and a humid 
atmosphere, operating on a prolific soil, combine 
to render vegetation in the South Sea Islands 
rapid and luxuriant. The botany, however, of the 
islands was rather abundant than diversified, when 
compared with that of New Holland, or other 
intertropical countries. But though the flora 
of Polynesia is less varied and brilliant than that 
of New South Wales, and among its valuable trees 
there be neither the oak of Europe, the teak of 
India, the cedar of America, the eucalypti of New 
Holland, nor the pine of New Zealand, it is not 
deficient in valuable timber. 
Many of the inferior hills, and the sides of the 
loftiest mountains, are clothed with forests of 
stately trees. Among these, the most valuable is 
the apape, a tree resembling, in its habits of 
